Project
| # | Title | Team Members | TA | Documents | Sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | Accessible and Educational Swarm Robotics Honorable Mention |
David Null John Kan Liqian Lu |
Dongwei Shi | design_document0.pdf final_paper0.pdf photo0.jpg presentation0.pdf proposal0.pdf |
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| # Names & NetIDs Liqian (Louis) Lu - llu13 John Kan - johnkan2 W David Null - null2 # Problem Swarm technologies are currently at the forefront of research efforts in the field of robotics. They enable novel and effective solutions for search and rescue operations, distributed sensing applications, agricultural tasks, and more. However, swarm capabilities are difficult to implement in educational environments because of the cost of materials and complexity of the systems. As a result, swarm technology is infrequently taught in high school engineering classes or after-school robotics programs, and students miss out on learning about this exciting new class of robots. # Solution We propose to develop a PCB that enables students to develop their own swarm robotics networks. The PCB will include an RF transmitter IC, an RF receiver IC, an accelerometer IC, and an open loop DC motor controller. The overall PCB design can be split into three sections: RF (developed in the ISM band under Title 47 CFR Part 15), power electronics, and sensors. We will build peripheral circuits around the ICs for the transmitter, receiver and accelerometer. An external battery will be used in order to power the ICs on the PCB through a power distribution system. An H-bridge IC will be used to control the simple DC motors on the robot. To develop a swarm, there must be more than one device. Therefore, our goal is to manufacture five robots that are equipped with our PCB, a Raspberry Pi for computation, and a camera. Four robots will communicate with each other through the fifth robot (entry point). These four robots would demonstrate their swarm capabilities by looking for a tag in a small area; once one of the robots finds it, all the robots will consider the task finished and stop. If time permits, we would like to experiment with implementing various decentralized swarm robotic algorithms and detailed positioning systems. But for now, we would be happy to have four robots exhaustively explore a defined area. [Original Web board link: Accessible and Educational Swarm Robotics](https://courses.engr.illinois.edu/ece445/pace/view-topic.asp?id=27053) [Previous RFA link: Accessible and Educational Swarm Robotics](https://courses.engr.illinois.edu/ece445/pace/view-topic.asp?id=27452) |
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