PRE2017 4 Groep6
Group members
- David van den Beld, 1001770
- Gerben Erens, 0997906
- Luc Kleinman, 1008097
- Maikel Morren, 1002099
- Adine van Wier, 0999813
Project
Project Statement
Planning
Below follows the planning for the project for the upcoming 9 weeks constituting the course 0LAUK0 Project: Robots Everywhere
| Week number | Task | Person* |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||
| Choose definitive subject | Collaborative effort of all members | |
| Define problem statement and objectives | David | |
| Define users | Adine | |
| Obtain user requirements | Gerben | |
| Work out typical use cases | Luc | |
| Define the milestones and deliverables | Maikel | |
| Define the approach of the problem | Collaborative effort of all members | |
Search for relevant state-of-the-art (SotA) sources, categories:
|
All divided into the subcategories:
| |
| Make project planning | Collaborative effort of all members | |
| 2 | ||
| Review user requirements and use cases | Collaborative effort of all members | |
| Finish collecting SotA articles and write SotA section | Each member for their respective subcategory | |
| Compile list of potential robot designs | Collaborative effort of all members | |
| Make some concept design sketches | Maikel | |
| Make a preliminary list of required parts | Gerben | |
| Define embedded software environment | Luc | |
| Preliminary elimination session for designs based on user requirements | Adine | |
| Start compiling list of design preferences/requirements/constraints | David | |
| 3 | ||
| Finish list of preferences/requirements/constraints | Adine | |
| Further eliminate designs due to constraints | Collaborative effort of all members | |
| Rank remaining designs and select a winner | Collaborative effort of all members | |
| Develop a building plan/schemata for the winner design | Gerben, Luc | |
| Start acquiring physical quantities for modelling design | Maikel, David | |
| Start with a simple model of some system parameters | Maikel, David | |
| 4 | ||
| Commence robot assembly according to highest priority of building schemata | Gerben, David | |
| Continue modelling/simulating | Maikel | |
| Start coding robot functionalities | Luc | |
| Catch up on documenting the wiki | Adine | |
| 5 | ||
| Continue robot assembly and coding | Gerben, David, Luc | |
| Continue modelling/simulating | Maikel | |
| Catch up on documenting the wiki | Collaborative effort of all members | |
| 6 | ||
| Continue robot assembly and coding | Gerben, Luc | |
| Test the first (few) finished sub-system(s) of the robot. | Collaborative effort of all members | |
| Finish modelling/simulating | Maikel, David | |
| Finish catching up on documenting the wiki | Collaborative effort of all members | |
| 7 | ||
| Finish robot assembly | Gerben | |
| Make concept designs for possible modules | Luc | |
| Make a draft for final presentation | Maikel, David, Adine | |
| Test the first (few) finished sub-system(s) of the robot. | Collaborative effort of all members | |
| 8 | ||
| Buffer time | Collaborative effort of all members | |
| Finish final presentation | Maikel, David, Adine | |
| Complete wiki | Gerben, Luc |
* The current division of task is a rough estimate for the next 7 weeks. New tasks may pop up or task division may be rotated, and is hence subject to change during the progress of the course.
Approach
The problem will be approached by a design question. What is the best design for a robot to combat deforestation which will be build modular so that it can be implemented for other purposes with minor changes. The first 2 weeks the approach will primarily be sequential, as user analysis, use cases and requirements/preferences/constraints need to be done sequentially before the rest of the project can start. Once this is over, the project will run in a parallel fashion where building and modelling will happen simultaneously.
Milestones and Deliverables
| Date | Accomplished |
|---|---|
| 30-04-2018 | SotA research done |
| 03-05-2018 | User analysis/use cases done |
| 07-05-2018 | Have a partially eliminated list of designs |
| 10-05-2018 | Pick final “winner” design |
| 21-05-2018 | Have the first working subsystem |
| 25-05-2018 | Finish modelling |
| 31-05-2018 | Have an operational prototype running with at least 2 subsystems |
| 07-06-2018 | Made several concepts for modules |
| 11-06-2018 | Presentation is finished |
| 14-06-2018 | Wiki is completely updated |
Literature Review
The literature review was divided into 5 subcategories, the results of which will be extended below.
Modularity
Modular robotics is a useful tool in the design of robots for in-field applications, as building a functional specialised robot from scratch is a time-consuming and cost-intensive process. If a modular design approach is taken, the costs of designing a robot could be severely reduced as one general robotic platform with some general functionalities would serve as the starting point, upon which modules can be placed to give the end-product the desired capabilities. A drawback of this modular design method, however, is that the design space will expand explosively due to the seemingly limitless possible configurations the robot could have [1]. However, this design space can be brought to proportions by severely reducing it, by placing the constraints which arise from the task to be completed by the robot onto the possible configurations [1]. By doing so any and all designs with but a singular deviation which would compromise the execution of the task are immediately discarded in the earlier stages of development.
Some examples of robots which implemented a modular design and with similar environmental working conditions as our to-be-designed seeding robot include the Small Robotic Farm Vehicle [2], the 4-wheel steering weed detection robot of Bak and Jakobsen [3], the Amphibious Locomotion Robot of Li, Urbina, Zhang and Gomez [4] and the Reconfigurable Integrated Multi-Robot Exploration System (RIMRES) [5]. These robots have in common that they are mostly based on a singular platform, suspended by wheels for locomotion, upon which several modules (e.g. sensors, mechatronic arms, pay-loads, other deployable robots, etc.) can be placed to increase functionality.
(Semi)-Autonomous Cars
The patent on remote control systems granted to Mitsubishi Electric Crop. By the US government. This document is a thorough description of how remote control systems work, if we decide to make our vehicle remote controlled all the info we need is in here. But it is incredibly lengthy and written in a way that is not pleasant to read, so use it as a last resort. [6]
This 2 page article is a statement from Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, about his predictions for autonomous cars in the near future. It shows his vision, which is directly linked to his companies (one of the biggest on this market) vision. [7]
To get our car driving smoothly, we will probably utilize a remote control, meaning that it will be very closely related to a remote controlled toy car, to which this doc. is the current active patent. It shows the state of the art radio controlled toy car technology currently available. [8]
A guide to help us control a servo motor with our computer, as a servo motor is the most likely option if we want our car to drive without outside help. [9]
A short article on the workings of servo motors, the main two interesting reads are the control of the servo and the different types, as we will have to chose one if we opt to use servo’s to drive our car around. [10]
Even though this site is a webshop, and not a scientific article, it shows what technology we can buy within a respectable price range and thus shows what we do not need to make ourselves. Before we start thinking about how to make a part of our robot, lets first check what this shop has got. [11]
Sensors for prospecting/evaluating ground
Drilling/plowing/seeding mechanism
Current deforestation combat methods
Bibliography
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Farritor, S. & Dubowsky, S.. Autonomous Robots (2001) Volume 10, pp57-65. “On Modular Design of Field Robotic Systems”. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026596403167
- ↑ Bawden, O., Ball, D., Kulk, J., Perez, T., & Russell, R.. Australian Conference on Robotics and Automation (2014). “A lightweight, modular robotic vehicle for the sustainable intensification of agriculture.”
- ↑ Bak, T., & Jakobsen, H.. Biosystems Engineering (2004), Volume 87, pp 125-136. "Agricultural robotic platform with four wheel steering for weed detection.". https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2003.10.009
- ↑ Li, G., Urbina, R., Zhang, H., & Gomez, J. G.. International Conference on Advanced Mechatronic Systems (ICAMechS) (2017), pp 145-150. “Concept design and simulation of a water proofing modular robot for amphibious locomotion.”. IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICAMechS.2017.8316566
- ↑ Cordes, F., Bindel, D., Lange, C., & Kirchner, F.. Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space (iSAIRAS’10) (2010), pp. 38-45. “Towards a modular reconfigurable heterogenous multi-robot exploration system.”
- ↑ https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/eb/4b/ce/ba560b94ae5c1a/US5554980.pdf
- ↑ http://www.oharas.com/ET/elonmusk.pdf
- ↑ https://patents.google.com/patent/US4457101A/en
- ↑ http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Dynamically-control-a-servo-or-motor-throug/
- ↑ https://www.jameco.com/jameco/workshop/howitworks/how-servo-motors-work.html
- ↑ https://www.tinytronics.nl/shop/nl