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A NON-TECHNICAL SYNOPSIS T he rover is built on a rectangular chassis rounded at the corners made with Balsa wood.The heart of the rover is the handy board.The handy board is a very common PCB used in amateur electronics project. On the handyboard is mounted a microcontroller, whose funtions is to perform the "thinking" operations of the rover.The handyboard also coontains various allied circuits like a RAM chip, motor drivers,voltage monitors etc. which are necessary for the final working of the rover.The rover senses objects by means of infra red sensors mounted on the chassis.As soon as the rover encounters an obstacle, it turns in the required direction and finds it's way out. The rover moves by means of wheels attached to the shaft of the motors. The motors are geared DC motors, working at 9 volts. The power supply to the motors is obtained by connecting them to two 9 volt batteries placed oon the chassis. Parallel to the wheel, on the motor shaft, is a device called a shft encoder. The shaft encoder's main function is to monitor the distance through which the rover has moved. All the software functions of the rover have been programmed using Interactive C (IC), and then downloaded to the RAM(on the handyboard ) using the RS 232 interface. A second PCB called the serial interface board is mounted on the chassis. It contains the RS 232 interface ( a technical standard for communication between the rover and the computer from where the program is loaded) and the power supply board, which supplies power during the downloading of the program from the computer too the RAM. Once the program is downloaded to the RAM, the contents of the RAM are kept active by means of rechargeable batteries. When the rover encounters a particular obstacle, it decides the best way out according to the the following conditions: i. If there is an obstacle in front and there are no obstacles on either side it turns 90 degrees and moves in the Preferred Direction. * If the X co-ordinate difference is positive which means that the destination is to the right of the start. The Preferred Direction is "right". * If the X co-ordinate difference is negative which means that the destination is to the left of the start. The Preferred Direction is "left". * If no obstacle is encountered, then the rover moves straight along the Y distance and then turns depending on the Preferred Direction, moves to the right or to the left. ii. If there is an obstacle in front AND there is an obstacle in the Preferred Direction then it 90 degrees and moves in the direction other than the Preferred Direction, but as soon as the obstacle is covered, it get back to the same vertical path as before. iii. If there is an obstacle in front AND there is an obstacle in the direction other than the Preferred Direction it 90 degrees and moves in the Preferred Direction and does not have to come back to the same vertical path as before, as it has covered the distance in the Preferred Direction. iv. If there is an obstacle in front and there are obstacles on either side, then it turns 180 degrees moves ahead thus effectively reversing the direction of the rover completely. Now, the rover is ready to move! |
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