Advanced Mechatronics

1st Mini Project

Remote Control Car

 Remote Control Car

Manual Control with the

remote and direction buttons

Automatic control detecting

and avoiding obstacles.

The car is controlled by

Radio frequency using the
remote control
 How Does It Work?
Remote
code

Arduino UNO

REMOTE CONTROL
(SIGNAL)

4 x Parallax tact switch

Parallax RF transmitor
 How Does It Work?
Car
Ultrasonic Sensor code

code
Parallax RF receiver

Arduino UNO

Arduino UNO

REMOTE CONTROL
(SIGNAL)

1 x parallax standard servo motor 2 x parallax standard continuous servo motor

Boe Bot Chasis
 How Does It Work?
Remote

Arduino constantly monitors the pushbuttons

Each button is assigned a number i.e. 1, 2 ..

Cyclic Redundancy Check is performed on the input

Data (byte) is sent over RF using the SoftwareSerial library

 How Does It Work?
Cyclic Redundancy Check:

Used to detect accidental changes to raw data

Simple protection against noise in the transmission channel

A generator polynomial is used in conjunction with the data to perform

polynomial long division.
The generator polynomial (x^2 + 1, in this case) is the divisor and the data
is the dividend.
Only the remainder is used
 How Does It Work?
CRC Implementation

Counter – How many individual piece of information (byte)

Data – User input
Save user input in a byte
Pack Counter and Data into a single value (int)
Pad the data with 0’s i.e. shift left by 3 bits
Padded data XOR 101 = Result
Result XOR 0101 (shifted right) until remainder is found
 How Does It Work?
Data Transmission

Counter – How many individual piece of information (2 bits)

Data – User input (3 bits)

CRC check value – remainder (3 LSB’s only mask the MSB’s)

Pack all these information in a byte

(Counter << 6) | (Data << 3) | CRC

Send over RF
 How Does It Work?
Receiver

Unpack the data

Mask out irrelevant bits in each case and then shift i.e.
Counter >> 6, Data >> 3

Calculate CRC value and compare with the received value to verify integrity

Make decision based on the data (i.e. drive pins high or low)
 How Does It Work?
Boe-bot

It goes on autonomous mode if no data is sent (no buttons are pressed)

During the autonomous mode it will go forward, if it detects an obstacle, it
will check distances in both sides and it will go to side of bigger distance.

Monitor the pins constantly, if any button is pressed, it will change to the
Manual mode

Based on the data received it determines servo angles

 Components

3 x Arduino UNO
Ultrasonic Distance Sensor
Parallax Standard Servo Motor
2 x Parallax Continuous Rotation Servo
Parallax RF Transmitter
Parallax RF Receiver
4 x Parallax tact switch
Parallax Boe bot chasis
Piezo Speaker
 Arduino UNO
This is the body and the brain of our project. We use
Arduino to receive signals, interpret them and control all
the components in our project.

Arduino is a tool for making smart devices that can sense

and control.

The physical world Arduino is an open-source electronics

prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use
hardware and software.

Arduino microcontroller is programmed using:

Arduino programming language (based on Wiring—C
libraries)
Arduino development environment (based on
Processing), Arduino integrated development
environment (IDE)
 Ultrasonic Distance Sensor

The ultrasonic distance sensor provides an easy method

of distance measurement. This sensor is perfect for any
number of applications that require you to perform
measurements between moving or stationary objects.

Interfacing to a microcontroller is a snap. A single I/O pin

is used to trigger an ultrasonic burst (well above human
hearing) and then "listen" for the echo return pulse. The
sensor measures the time required for the echo return,
and returns this value to the microcontroller as a
variable-width pulse via the same I/O pin.

We have used the ultrasonic distance sensor to detect the

objects that avoid us to follow a path. If there is an
object in front of the car, the sensor will detect both
sides, compare both distances and will go in the direction
of the bigger distance.
 Parallax Standard Servo Motor

A servo motor is a rotary actuator that allows for precise

control of angular position, velocity and acceleration. It
consists of a suitable motor coupled to a sensor for
position feedback.

The way in which the standard servomotor works in our

project is easy. Once the Ultra sonic distance sensor
detects that there is an object in front of the car, the
servo will rotate to make the ultra sonic distance
detector check right and left sides.

This Servo can oscillate from 0 to 180 degrees. And this

is all we need, since we don’t have to care about back
distances, we only have to turn 90 degrees to check one
side, and 180 degrees from there to check the other.
This is the reason because we use this servo and not
Parallax Continious Rotation.
 Parallax Cotinuous Rotation Servo

It has the same characteristics as the Parallax Standard

Servo Motor, with the main difference that it can rotate
continuosly, whitout 180 degrees limitation.

0 to 50 RPM, with linear response to PWM for easy ramping

In our mini project, the purpose of the Parallax Continuous

servos is to move the Boe Bot. To move the car forward,
servomotor has to move in different directions, as for
moving backward, and to turn one side or the other, one of
the servos has to stop turning, and the other will turn max
speed, during a short amount of time.
 Parallax RF Module (Transmitter & Receiver)

This easy-to-use module is capable of sending and receiving serial data

wirelessly between microcontrollers or to a PC. Low power consumption
makes it ideal for use in battery-powered applications.

Data is sent and received by AM or CPCA modulation, thus offering a

higher average output power which extends the range. This module is
equipped with an RSSI feature that can be utilized to improve power
efficiency by waking up circuitry only when an external signal is
detected and it has a frequency band of 433 MHz.

These transmitter and receiver are the modules that we use to

communicate the Remote control with the Car. The transmitter will
send the signals what we want, the receiver will receive them, and
thanks to Arduino, the signal will be processed and the car will move as
we like.
 Parallax tact switch

This tact switch is a normally-open pushbutton

suitable for breadboard or through-hole.

We have used four tact switches to control the manual

mode on out car. Each of the buttons will send a signal
to Arduino on the remote control, and through the RF
Module, the signal will be sent to the car and it will
move the way that we want.
 Parallax Piezo-Speaker

Commonly said, it’s as an inexpensive speaker.

In the Manual mode, we have used the Piezo Speaker

imitating the beeping of a car.

In the autonomous mode, the Piezo speaker will beep

when there is an obstacle in front of the car, and it will
beep differently for right and left sides.

For doing that, we should program a code, using

different frequencies for each position, front, right side
and left side.
 Parallax Boe bot chasis

This chasis is part of the Parallax Boe Bot Kit and it

has been used to built out car. It comes with two
wheels on the sides, a little ball on the back and a
battery pack that we used to feed Arduino, Ultra
Sonic Sensor and Parallax Standard Servo.

As we will explain in the mechanical design,

Arduino and the servomotors are connected to the
Boe Bot, so we can use the servomotors to move
the wheels and the Arduino to control them
without using difficult and complex wiring.
 Car Design

For the mechanical design we have plugged two

Arduino UNO and a breadboard into the Boe Bot
Kit.
The first Arduino is constantly receiving data
from the RF Module and sending the commands
to the second Arduino, which controlls the car.

The Parallax Standard Servo in plugged in front of

the Boe Bot and the Parallax continuous rotation
servos are attached to the wheels.

The Ultrasonic Distance Sensor (used in the

autonomous mode) is plugged over the Parallax
Standard Servo, which will rotate when an
obstacle is in front of the Boe Bot, to make the
Ultrasonic Distance Sensor check the distances on
the sides.
 Remote Design

For the remote we have used a breaboard

with four switches and the RF Module
Transmitter.

Depending on the switch we press, the

car will move in one direction or another
 Code
Remote
 Code
Remote
Code Receiver
Code Receiver
Code Receiver
 Code
Boe Bot
 Code
Boe Bot
 Code
Boe Bot
 Purpose

The main purpose of this first miniproject was to get familiarized with Arduino
and its way of programming.

Different components as buttons, Ultrasonic distance sensor, piezo speaker,

servos and RF Modules have been used in this Miniproject to have a better
understanding of them in Arduino world.

Thanks to this project we have learned how to communicate, how to program

and how to use those components with Arduino.
 Budget

Name Units Costs

Arduino UNO 3 $44.85

Parallax Standard Servo Motor 1 $12.99
Parallax Continuous Rotation Servo 2 $27.98
Boe Boe Kit 1 $34.99
Parallax tact Switches 4 $2
Ultrasonic Distance Sensor 1 $29.99
RF Module Transmitter and Receiver 1 $24.99
Piezo Speaker 1 $2
Resistors and Batteries Various $10
Approximate Value $189.79