Odyssey and Test Plan...Odyssey 2007 3 Rangefinder Image Gather Rate ..... 15 Image processing – detecting lanes..... 16 Odyssey 2007 4 Build and Test Plan Resource Division The

Odyssey Build and Test Plan The construction and programming of this autonomous ground vehicle requires careful planning and project management to ensure that all tasks are completed appropriately in due time. The following paper details the goals for the build and test phases of the project. Team Members:

Anshul Tandon Brandon Nasion Brian Aidoo Eric Leefe Ivan Bolanos Donald Lee Hardee Wilfredo Caceres Advisors: Mr. Bryan Audiffred Dr. Michael C. Murphy January 26, 2007

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Table of Contents

Build and Test Plan ............................................................................................................. 1

Resource Division ............................................................................................................... 4

Task List & Gantt Chart ...................................................................................................... 5

Build Plan............................................................................................................................ 7

Batteries .......................................................................................................................... 7

Monitoring System.......................................................................................................... 7

Wiring/Fuses ................................................................................................................... 7

Battery Placement ........................................................................................................... 8

Battery Life ..................................................................................................................... 8

Battery Charging ............................................................................................................. 8

Voltage Regulation ......................................................................................................... 8

Motor Interface ............................................................................................................... 8

Low Battery Protocol ...................................................................................................... 9

Vision Sensors - Hardware ............................................................................................. 9

Vision Algorithm - Software .......................................................................................... 9

GPS & Compass - Hardware ........................................................................................ 10

GPS & Compass – Software ......................................................................................... 10

Emergency Stop ............................................................................................................ 10

Software ........................................................................................................................ 10

Test Plan............................................................................................................................ 11

Batteries ........................................................................................................................ 11

Monitoring System........................................................................................................ 11

Wiring/Fuses ................................................................................................................. 11

Battery Placement ......................................................................................................... 12

Battery Life ................................................................................................................... 12

Battery Charging ........................................................................................................... 12

Voltage Regulation ....................................................................................................... 13

Motor Interface ............................................................................................................. 13

Low Battery Protocol .................................................................................................... 13

Camera Orientation ....................................................................................................... 14

Camera Image Gather Rate ........................................................................................... 15

Rangefinder Orientation................................................................................................ 15

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Rangefinder Image Gather Rate.................................................................................... 15

Image processing – detecting lanes............................................................................... 16

Image processing – detecting potholes ......................................................................... 16

Image processing – detecting obstacles ........................................................................ 17

GPS ............................................................................................................................... 17

Compass ........................................................................................................................ 18

Motor Controls & Encoders .......................................................................................... 18

Steering Algorithm........................................................................................................ 18

Emergency Stop ............................................................................................................ 19

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Build and Test Plan

Resource Division

The resources that will be required for the construction and testing of the vehicle have

been demarcated into different categories based upon areas of expertise.

Globally, the team is divided into two sections, the group of Electrical and Computer

Engineering, in charge of the electrical and software aspects of the vehicle, and the

Mechanical Engineers, in charge of the hardware and mechanical aspects of the vehicle.

The Mechanical engineers would undertake the tasks of construction and assembly of the

chassis along with manufacturing and fitting specific components to the vehicle. They

will also undertake the hardware testing and overall construction of the vehicle.

The Electrical and Computer Engineers would undertake the tasks of software

programming and the assembly and test of the sensors and electrical equipment such as

the battery and charging units.

Within these specific groups, the people who are the area owners will be the key resource

in the construction and test of their areas. The area owners are the designers of their

features and have a better conceptual idea and vision of their features. They will be

responsible for ensuring that their areas are working appropriately once the vehicle is

built and completed.

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Task List & Gantt Chart

During the course of the project, we will have several milestones that would help us

manage the progress of the project and keep us on track towards our final ultimate

objective. The milestones have been spread throughout the timeline and are based upon

the current desired completed status of the project.

Milestone Date Description

M1 Feb 15, 2007 Finalize Software Interfacing Details M2 Feb 28. 2007 Finish General Assembly + Individual Component Testing Beta1 Mar 07, 2007 Finish consolidating software – stage 1 Beta2 Mar 22, 2007 Finish consolidating software – stage 2 Beta2TR Apr 06, 2007 Finish all individual software components, start overall test Release Candidate Apr 23, 2007 Ensure overall vehicle ready, triage any required changes Release to Competition May 01, 2007 Odyssey ready for demo and competition

The following Gantt chart displays the above task list in a graphical fashion.

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Build Plan

The construction of the robot will be done in phases. As outlined in the Gantt chart, the

assembly and coding sections of the project will be undertaken separately ensuring that

all parts connected to the vehicle assembly are functioning appropriately.

Batteries

Batteries will be periodically inspected for any type of deformation or corrosion

developing on any of the cells. If any of these damages are noticed, immediate repair

will be necessary before any further testing can be performed. Any battery cell that has

become degraded below acceptable standards will be removed and if time and budget

permits, another cell will be purchased for replacement. If the battery cell cannot be

replaced, we will have to make some alterations to our design to compensate having one

less battery to operate the vehicle.

Monitoring System

The battery monitoring system includes an analog to digital converter, a PIC12C671, and

a voltmeter software display acquired data in a user-friendly form. The A/D chip is

designed to convert up to a maximum voltage of 5V. Since this particular application

requires a measurement of at least 12V, resistors will be used to scale the voltage of the

battery to about 5V for the A/D chip to correctly handle the conversion. The PIC12C671

will then be programmed to interpret the various voltages between 0 and 5V as a relative

voltage between 0 and 12V. This interface will not be able to obtain voltage

measurements of 100% accuracy, but it will be completed to provide real-time readings

accurate enough for a user to diagnose any possible electrical malfunctions. This

subsystem of the power system will require the most exhaustive testing procedure

because it will be relied upon in testing sensor components and other system.

Wiring/Fuses

The wiring for all components in the vehicle will be organized in a mannerly form to aid

in any troubleshooting of faulty connections. All wiring will be color-coded and labeled

according to the components it connects. Size is also very important therefore extra

attention will be used in making the wires as short as possible. As the vehicle travels the

obstacle and navigation course, the wires may be subject to small forces which may

loosen or even detach connections from components. Fuses will also be used to protect

the components from possible surges in current. All wires will run through an electrical

box where the will connect to a fuse rated at the maximum current value of component

being supplied the power. Loose wiring and blown fuses are a common point of failure

in electrical systems, so thorough testing of these parts will minimize the risk of this

hazard.

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Battery Placement

The placement of the batteries in the vehicle will largely impact the maneuverability of

the vehicle. The batteries will be placed in the bottom compartment of the vehicle to

have a lower center of mass. The exact placement in this compartment will be

determined through trial and error examining which configuration creates the best

handling of the vehicle and minimizes damage to the batteries.

Battery Life

The battery life of the vehicle will depend upon the power dissipated from the two power

subsystems in the vehicle. The power for the sensing hardware has a calculated battery

life of 2.36 hours and the power for the motors has a calculated battery life of 3 hours.

Since theoretical values almost always differ from experimental, extensive testing will be

executed to determine the real battery life and will be repeatedly tested until an

acceptable value of at least 2 hours for each subsystem is achieved.

Battery Charging

The battery charging system will consist of a Battery Tender 12V 4-Bank battery charger

and a Battery Tender 12V 2-Bank battery charger. Both chargers will be placed on board

of the vehicle in the same compartment as the 6 batteries. They will be connected to the

batteries while the vehicle is in operation so that whenever a recharge needs to be

administered, the cords from the chargers can be plug into an AC wall outlet, and the

batteries do not have to be removed from the vehicle. The will also be bolted to the

frame to prevent them from damaging any surrounding parts.

Voltage Regulation

Voltage regulation will be provided by a two 12V Low Dropout Dual Output Regulators

with Enable pins and a 24V Single Output Regulator with an Enable pin. These ICs will

be soldered to a printed circuit board placed inside of the electrical box where the camera,

GPS unit, digital compass, and the laser range finder. A DC to DC converter will be

placed inside of the vehicle to provide voltage regulation and power conversion for the on

board laptop. This will be placed in the middle compartment of the vehicle near the

electrical box.

Motor Interface

The motor interface will consist of four batteries to power both of the 24V motors and a

motor control unit receiving serial commands from the processing unit. The motor

control unit will be place above the two motors towards the front the vehicle for close

communication with the laptop and motors. The heat generated by the motors during

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operation is a major concern because certainly an excessive amount of heat can cause

sensitive electrical components to malfunction. Testing will determine whether our

design is enough to prevent the heat from damaging components in the vehicle.

Low Battery Protocol

The low battery protocol will be implemented using software programming and sending a

signal to the Enable pins of the regulators to turn off certain components in the event the

batteries begin to wear out during the competition. The software will have a specified

voltage programmed into it and if the monitoring system detects the batteries have

reached this voltage, a signal will be sent to the software to begin executing the low

battery protocol. During the autonomous challenge course, the GPS unit is the least

significant component so it will be the first sensor to be turned off. If the voltage drops

to a more critical level, then the digital compass will then be turned off. For the

navigation challenge, the camera will be the first component to be turned off because the

vehicle will not have to detect and follow lane lines. The component to be turned off

during this challenge will be the laser range finder. Testing will determine how effective

this protocol will be and how much extra runtime can be gained using this protocol.

Vision Sensors - Hardware

The construction and building for the vision sensors would be done once the parts are

tested independently. Once their component and unit testing is complete, they will be

integrated in the hardware assembly. Upon attaching these sensors, they will then

undergo integration testing to ensure that their meet the requirements for their orientation.

The details for the component and integration testing are mentioned later in the testing

criteria section.

Vision Algorithm - Software

Similar to the construction of mechanical parts, the building of the software system that

controls the vision hardware will be done independently of the overall system. The

software system will first be implemented in Matlab to ensure that the software can

gather images from the camera and the rangefinder and render them to produce useful

information.

Once a working version of the software is complete (in Matlab or in the finally chosen

language of implementation), it will be integrated with the overall software system and

interfaced with other dependent modules. Then it will be tested to ensure that any

integration bugs are removed.

Finally, the system will be improved by adding features to provide better software

coverage and to add software integrity to the system. Any additions to the software at this

point in the system lifecycle would be done only to solve problem initially flagged as

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non-essential issues. These issues may include performing overall tests and writing

additional code to handle exceptions or to simply solving problems that have surfaced in

integration and testing.

GPS & Compass - Hardware

Just as with the vision sensors, the GPS unit and digital compass will be tested

individually once they are acquired to ensure the proper requirements (accuracy and

precision) are met. Once these characteristics are ascertained, the units will be integrated

to the overall assembly.

GPS & Compass – Software

The software functions controlling these items will be constructed using the needs

dictated by the overall software platform (how the functions will be called and the format

in which the data must be returned). Once the functions are written, they will be tested

individually to ensure that they work correctly before they are consolidated into the main

program.

Emergency Stop

The emergency stop will be assembled on a custom printed circuit board. Its components

have been selected to ease construction and minimize parts. The receiver has an antennae

connected to a 433MHz radio frequency receiver that then sends the signal to a decoder

than does error correction and data verification. Once the decoder receives a valid signal

it changes its pins to indicate the valid data. This then activates a relay which turns off

power to the motors. The transmitter does a similar function but in reverse. It is initiated

by a user pressed button that triggers the encoder to send the data to the rf transmitter.

Software

The software will be created using the C programming language and a Visual Studio

project to ease compiling and testing. In order to keep an up to date copy of everyone’s

code we will be using Subversion to do version control. This will allow everyone to work

on their own part and submit it when it’s done while allowing others to keep working at

the same time. This will help keep us organized and on top of the programming. The

application will be built from the ground up and an API will be provided to the other

team mates so that they can complete their modules even before all the interface code has

been written.

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Test Plan

Batteries

Testing of the batteries will be as follows:

1. Measure the voltage of the battery fully charged to determine their maximum

voltage.

2. Examine batteries for any possible leakage.

3. Examine battery terminals for corrosion.

4. Examine batteries for possible short circuits.

The batteries will be repeatedly checked for these conditions on a weekly basis to make

sure the batteries are at peak performance.

Monitoring System

Testing of the monitoring system will be as follows:

1. Connect the serial voltmeter with its original configuration to a 5V voltage source

to test if the serial voltmeter can correctly measure this value. Adjust the voltage

source to various voltages between 0 and 5V and verify the corresponding reading

on the voltmeter software is correct.

2. Measure the voltage of a fully charged battery to see the maximum voltage of the

battery cell. Then the PIC12C671 will be programmed to interpret a 5V reading

as the maximum voltage of the battery cell.

3. Place a large resistance (100kΩ) in series with a fully charged 12V battery and

connect it to the A/D converter. Analyze the corresponding reading and adjust the

resistance accordingly until the maximum value acquired in the previous step is

achieved.

4. Apply various voltages to the A/D converter and compare the corresponding

readings with the readings of an analog voltmeter. Acceptable readings for the

serial voltmeter must be with half a volt (±0.5V) of the readings taken from the

analog voltmeter. About 20 measurements and comparisons of this type will be

taken at each 1V increment (From 0 to the maximum voltage).

5. The configuration for the single 12V fully charged battery will then be applied to

the rest of the battery cells and the same testing procedure will be executed for

each one until satisfactory readings are attained and displayed by the serial

voltmeter software.

After all calibrations are made to correctly measure the voltage, periodic checks will be

made to verify the measurements are still correct.

Wiring/Fuses

Testing of the wiring/fuses will be as follows:

1. Wires will be periodically inspected for loose ends, potential breaks, and bare

wire openings and will be repaired immediately.

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2. Small forces comparable to the forces the wires may experience during vehicle

operation will be applied to all wires to verify the connections are strong enough

to withstand these forces.

3. Each fuse will be connected to a simple circuit containing one resistor. Just

enough voltage will be applied to the circuit to produce a current which should

blow the particular fuse. Verify that the fuse breaks and current does not continue

to flow through the circuit.

Battery Placement

Testing for battery placement will be as follows:

1. Place batteries in several arrangements and detect the arrangement which

incorporates the least amount of force to quickly turn the vehicle in a 360°

rotation. This will be done by moving the frame with the batteries placed in it and

measuring the exact force.

Battery Life

Testing the battery life will be as follows:

1. Connect all sensing hardware to four fully charged batteries and simulate course

conditions through software to demand the processing unit to dissipate the

maximum amount of power required to complete the computations. The total

runtime for this system will be recorded until the voltage of the batteries drop

below 80% of its maximum voltage (This is when the battery is considered

discharged and before becoming in danger of permanent damage from over-

discharge).

2. Connect motors to the set of fully charged batteries and send signals to the motors

to spin at the rpm that will accelerate the vehicle to 5 mph in about 2 seconds.

Continuously decelerate and accelerate the motor at this rate until the batteries

have reached the 80% discharge point. This test will give the battery life in a

worst case scenario in which the vehicle will be starting and stopping abruptly

due to software malfunction.

3. With the entire vehicle assembled, accelerate the vehicle to 5 mph and record time

to for the batteries to be discharged to the 80% point.

4. Construct a course similar to the anticipated competition course and allow vehicle

to navigate the course. The vehicle must be able to navigate the course at least

three times without a recharged needing to be administered.

Battery Charging

Testing of the battery charging system will be as follows:

1. Discharge each battery until the output voltage is approximately 80% of the

maximum voltage. Connect the batteries to the two multibank chargers.

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2. Observe the amount of time it takes for the batteries to output their maximum

values again. The amount of time should be no more than 5 hours.

3. Secure chargers in the vehicle along with the battery and apply small forces to the

battery charging connectors. Verify that they are able to stay connected to the

battery terminals during vehicle operation.

After every three recharges, a battery life test will be executed to verify that the batteries

are not losing a significant amount of battery life after each recharge cycle.

Voltage Regulation

Testing of voltage regulation will be as follows:

1. Generate a varying voltage function with an average of 12V and apply function to

each of the 12V regulators. Use a dummy resistor that will draw approximately

the same amount of current as the component that will use the regulator in this

test.

2. Measure the voltage of the resistor with a voltmeter. Verify the voltage is within

±0.5V of the specified voltage of the regulator.

3. Repeat these steps for the 24V regulator.

4. Attach regulators to the actual components and perform the test using the power

from the batteries in the vehicle.

Motor Interface

Testing of the motor interface will be as follows:

1. Connect the motors to the motor control unit and the motor control unit to the

batteries. Send serial commands from the processing to accelerate the vehicle at 2

m/s2.

2. Once vehicle speed reaches 5 mph, allow the vehicle to continue traveling at this

speed for 5 minutes.

3. Measure the temperature inside each compartment of the vehicle. Verify that

none of these temperatures are above the maximum operating temperatures for

any of the internal components.

If the temperature noticeably impacts the performance of any of the sensing hardware,

adjustments to increase ventilation will be made first. If this is not able to resolve the

problem, the changes will have to be made to the placement of the components.

Low Battery Protocol

Testing of the low battery protocol will be as follows:

1. Connect power to each component through the regulators. Execute the software

on the processing unit and send the enable bit serially to each regulator. Verify

that the components stop operating.

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2. Discharge batteries to the first critical value programmed in the software.

Observe the monitoring system to see if the system is able to detect the critical

value and notify the processing unit to execute the software.

3. Check components to see if the specified component has stopped its operation.

4. Carefully discharge batteries to the next critical value. Repeat the previous steps

to verify if the next component specified in the protocol has stopped its operation.

Camera Orientation

The camera will be placed on a vertical pole extending from the front of the vehicle. The

height and tilt of the camera will be important factors in determining its correct

orientation. The ideal position for the camera would yield in a complete view of the

course ahead of the vehicle. However, due to hardware constraints such as the focal

length and the focal view of the camera, we are aiming to achieve the following:

1. A wide view of the lane such that lanes on both sides of the vehicle can be

detected by the camera. In order to achieve this, the camera should be able to see

at least 10 feet in width in the closest part of the image. This constraint allows us

to view the lanes easily.

2. A long view of the lane such that we can view objects including potholes and

lanes up to at least 10 meters (approximately 30 feet) ahead of the vehicle. This

number is obtained by calculating the distance the vehicle would travel moving at

a target speed in the amount of time it takes to process the image and take

decisive actions to turn the vehicle.

The orientation of the camera is currently a grey-area which will be exacted once we

have the exact parts we will be using. The camera should be placed approximately 5 feet

high, tilted at an angle of approximately 45°-60°.

Following are the test cases that we will be considering:

Height (') Tilt Angle (°) Width - image (') Length - image (') Resolution Acceptable?

4.5 45

4.5 50

4.5 55

4.5 60

5 45

5 50

5 55

5 60

5.5 45

5.5 50

5.5 55

5.5 60

Success would be measured by the appropriateness of the image resulted if any of these

height-angle combinations result in the above two goals.

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If none of the above views provide the desired image, then perhaps, we would have to

obtain an objective lens for the camera with a wider field of view.

Camera Image Gather Rate

The gather rate of the camera would be crucial factor in the image processing and

analysis. The processor needs to poll the camera to grab its images and then process them

in order to determine the desired direction for the vehicle.

The testing for the image gather rate would be done by connecting the camera to the

computer and then capturing images from it. The faster the images can be captured from

the camera, the better for the vehicle. The computer needs a minimum frame rate of 10

frames per second, in order to avoid missing the lanes traveling at a speed of 5 mph. This

is the success rate for the image gather system. If the camera can deliver at least 5 images

per second to the computer, the image gather system would be deemed successful.

Rangefinder Orientation

The rangefinder should be horizontally placed in front of the vehicle at an approximately

height of 1 foot. The height of the rangefinder should allow it to detect the obstacles in

the path of the vehicle such as the construction barrels, trees, fences, etc. and avoid

detecting the inclines. Since the inclines are not obstacles, but simply part of the course,

they should not be detected as obstacles.

The positioning of the rangefinder should be somewhat less critical, although equally

important. Testing for its orientation includes ensuring that the rangefinder can view the

180degree front view of the vehicle without any error and is not tilted in any direction.

Rangefinder Image Gather Rate

The gather rate for the rangefinder would be significant when trying to determine the

obstacles in front of the vehicle. Based on the current technical requirements, the

computer should be able to grab an image from the rangefinder every ½ seconds. This

means that the rangefinder should be able to perform a sweep of its laser at a speed of

2Hz. Based on the technical specifications of the rangefinder, this is easily achievable by

the rangefinder.

The testing for this should be done in an experimental setup where the rangefinder is

connected to the computer and the computer sends continuous requests to the rangefinder

for images every ½ seconds. Success would be measured based upon how fast the

rangefinder can return an image to the computer. The rangefinder would meet its desired

requirements if it can return at least 2 images within one second.

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Image processing – detecting lanes

The test criteria for detecting lanes should be extensive to ensure that the lanes would be

detected by the image processing algorithms in all cases. From the camera’s orientation

and specifications, the following type of images can be obtained:

1. Two lanes vertically parallel

2. Two lanes turning in some direction

3. One lane vertical

4. One lane horizontal

5. One lane at an angle between 0degree and 90degree to the horizon

If no lanes are detected, then the vehicle has moved off course and should not be running.

The orientation of the camera should ensure that if the vehicle is on the course, it can

always view at least one lane.

To test that the algorithm can detect the lanes from the images, the following tests should

be performed:

1. Bypass the camera by sending images to the image analysis algorithm and try and

detect the lanes.

2. The images used to test the algorithm should consist of a complete set of images:

images from each one of the above five categories.

3. Use images that are distorted, that have noise, and that are blurred to ensure that

all environmental issues are taken into account.

This sort of test would be unit testing where the procedure that detects lanes from images

is tested to ensure that it is working appropriately. In addition to its appropriateness, the

procedure should also be tested for performance. We need to ensure that the procedure

can process the images and detect lanes in less than ½ second to allow time to react.

Image processing – detecting potholes

The test criteria for detecting potholes should also be as extensive as possible to ensure

that the potholes would be detected by the image processing algorithms. From the

camera’s orientation and specifications, the following type of images can be obtained:

1. No potholes at all in the image

2. Simulated pothole image

3. Actual pothole in the image

4. Partial actual pothole in the image

5. Partial simulated pothole in the image

6. Both a simulated as well as an actual pothole in the image

If no potholes are in the image, then nothing needs to be done. Images with simulated and

actual potholes will need to be treated differently. Simulated potholes can be detected by

converting the image to b/w and then detecting a patch of white pixels in the image.

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Actual pothole detection is more challenging: it requires the image to be transformed to

detect color differences in the grass.

To test that the algorithm can detect the potholes from the images, the following tests

should be performed:

1. Bypass the camera by sending images to the image analysis algorithm and try and

detect the potholes.


images from each one of the above six categories.

3. Use images that are distorted, that have noise, and that are blurred to ensure that

all environmental issues are taken into account.





Image processing – detecting obstacles

From the rangefinder’s orientation and specifications, the image obtained from the

rangefinder would be a 180 degree grid. The following types of images would be

obtained from the rangefinder:

1. Nothing in the range of the rangefinder

2. Obstacles approximately in the maximum range

3. Obstacles too close to the rangefinder, within its minimum range

4. Obstacles on the edges, at 0degrees and at 180 degrees

5. Obstacles in detectable range and any combination of the above

The obstacle detection should be trivial once the image from rangefinder is obtained:

1. Bypass the rangefinder by sending images to the image analysis algorithm and try

and detect the lanes


images from each one of the above five categories.





GPS

The GPS unit itself will be tested using the development software supplied with the

product and our own test platform. The development software will be used to ensure

proper functionality and to explore features of the unit. The test platform will be used to

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determine the best way to communicate with the device and to show the actual strings

being returned from the unit. The accuracy of the heading information will also be tested

against the compass to determine if the compass must be used at all.

The software the robot will run to communicate with the GPS will be tested using a test

platform which will supply “fake” data from the GPS to ensure that it is working

properly. Once this is done, the real GPS unit will be connected and the system tested as

a whole.

Compass The compass we are using is menu-based with its own set of commands. Each of these

commands will be tested to verify that we are using the compass as efficiently and

effectively as possible. Extensive hardware testing will also be performed for the

alignment (both “pan” and “tilt”) and to make sure that it is located far enough away from

any sources of magnetic interference, i.e. motors, not to cause any problems.

Motor Controls & Encoders A motor controller with on-board PID functionality has been selected, so the software on

the board will perform the direct control of the motors. Once the loops are designed, they

can be simulated using Matlab and Simulink. These tools will show us the actual

performance of the loops, and the parameters can then be adjusted to achieve the desired

operation.

Closed loop control requires properly functioning encoders. To test the encoders, the

quadrature outputs will be connected to test equipment and the waveform the two

channels generate will be viewed.

Steering Algorithm

The steering algorithm must be tested extensively to make certain our calculations were

performed correctly. This is a very important part of the software (the robot would not

move without it) and must work correctly. The algorithm can be tested and refined using

Matlab scripts before it is put into executable code.

Once the motor control loops have been finalized and stored in the controller, a mockup

of the robot will be constructed using the actual motors and controllers. The mock robot

will be of the same width as the robot to guarantee accurate simulation of the turning

radius. The algorithm can then be run on real components and adjusted thereafter.

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Emergency Stop

The circuit has been tested on a breadboard in the lab already. All pins were verified for

their correct net connectivity by using a multi-meter. Once the transmitter button has

been pressed the receiver correctly output the valid data and activated the relay.

Software The application is built upon modules that interact together to form the working robot.

Each module will be divided into as many individual functions that can be tested and then

unit tests will be run upon them. A unit test inputs some typical values to the function and

then checks the results against what they are know to be. This will ensure that at no time

will the code contain errors. If someone changes something that does create an error, you

will know by the unit test failing. The measure of success for the software

Odyssey and Test Plan...Odyssey 2007 3 Rangefinder Image Gather Rate ..... 15 Image processing – detecting lanes..... 16 Odyssey 2007 4 Build and Test Plan Resource Division The

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