Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
43 Gait Controlled Treadmill
Charles Lewis
Jacob Pruiett
Jiangtian Feng
Anthony Caton design_document4.pdf
final_paper1.docx
final_paper2.pdf
presentation2.pptx
proposal2.pdf
Members: pruiett2, (Jacob Pruiett), cllewis2 (Charles Leonard Lewis IV)

PROBLEM:

When I was at the gym, I couldn't help but notice how many people hold on to the rails of their chosen treadmill. It's a common behavior for gym patrons to feel a sense of insecurity due to the inherent nature of a machine dictating the speed of your stride. Even with the added protective features of a safety clip (used to break the circuit connection to the belt), several stop buttons, and handrails there is always the fear of losing one's balance in the absence of being able to access one of these features (as a quick youtube search will reveal a plethora of treadmill mishap compilations). Furthermore, the lack of natural speed control takes a runner out of the moment by having to physically reach out to a board and make changes. Even manual treadmills lack the seamless controllability of being able transition between speeds due to the unnatural force application required to accelerate the belt; generally speaking, very light or very heavy people would tend to run into complications when it comes to the manual governing of the belt speed.

Solution:

I propose a hybrid between an automated and manual treadmill. This gait controlled treadmill would only require the user to begin walking before an on board automated system would match their speed. This would eliminate the need to apply excess force on the tread (as dictated by a purely manual treadmill) as well as the predetermination of setting a gait speed by way of a console (as in an automated treadmill).

Forecasting a considerable design challenge would be the smooth transitioning between velocities as the user changes speed. Designing a system to manage speed control may require a relatively sophisticated understanding of control theory; unless other considerations can be made.

As an added note, the previous iteration of this proposal required the implementation of force and pressure sensors to detect changes in velocity and acceleration. Due to those sensors being replaced with what we have suggested here, we have can feasibly scale up or down the model to be implementable as a full scale human sized model as we will be using something akin to a table top sized model and utilize an RC vehicle as the test “volunteer”. This will eliminate the need for a human test subject and thus any safety concerns associated with such a consideration. In addition it will add greater ease of transportation over a normal sized treadmill, and will take up much less lab space with which other students will have more space to work on their own projects. In summation we have decided to downscale for ease of testing, safety, and in consideration of our peers.

COMPONENTS:

MOTOR CONTROL SYSTEM:

Powering the treadmill will be a small motor powered by an outlet using an adapter. We will then use an ATmega328 microcontroller to control the motor based on sensory input. The motor speed will be based on how fast the user on the treadmill is moving relative to the belt, and their position relative to the center of the belt. If a user is slowing down, and thus moving slower than the belt itself, the belt will slow down to accommodate, and will likewise speed up if a user is moving faster than the belt.The biggest problems we will face in this department is making sure the belt is able to accelerate to match a users pace quickly, whilst also making the transition smoothly enough so that it does not cause a sudden jolt in movement, making the user lose balance and possibly become injured.

SENSOR SYSTEM:

The user’s desired acceleration/deceleration and velocity control would be dictated by the change in gait speed. As the user begins a forward stride or begins to loose forward momentum the electronic feedback PI or PID control system will detect the relative velocity change in position. Originally we had wanted to use force input from the treadmill to gather data on the user, but after gaining some advice from TA’s and the Mechanical Engineering department, we decided to opt for distance and velocity based sensory input. For the sensor itself, we want to experiment with both laser (mainly lidar) and ultra-sonic sensors, testing out multiple configurations and seeing which result is the best. The reason we want to try multiple configurations is because, if mounted from the front, the sensor may be not be able to gather accurate data due to the users arm swaying in front of them, but cannot be mounted directly behind the user for safety reasons, so we will test having multiple sensors from different angles, and compare efficiency of detection to how expensive a given configuration is. One such setup may include multiple sensors lining the bottom of the treadmill (near the feet of the user) that would store multiple readings of position and velocity relative to one another thereby picking up when the user is advancing (speeding up) or lagging (slowing down).

CRITERIA FOR SUCCESS:

In order to determine that our design is successful, it will need to be able to effectively determine the position and velocity of our RC car subject relative to the treadmill, then use that data in conjunction to the velocity of our treadmill velocity data to make the treadmill move faster or slower depending on the acceleration and velocity of our user. Our control system will need to implement this smoothly enough so as to keep the treadmill safe, but make it fast enough to still keep pace with the user.

Reach Goals: The weight of the user can be acquired if we include a force sensor on the static side rails (surrounding tread), which can then be used to determine calories burned during a workout. In addition we will be using the velocity data from the motor in order to determine the speed of the treadmill.

Link to idea post: https://courses.engr.illinois.edu/ece445/pace/view-topic.asp?id=31807

Note: We are still looking for a third person to assist with this project. Perhaps a person with some circuit control and/or power experience; but, we're open to other experiences. cllewis2667@gmail.com

S.I.P. (Smart Irrigation Project)

Jackson Lenz, James McMahon

S.I.P. (Smart Irrigation Project)

Featured Project

Jackson Lenz

James McMahon

Our project is to be a reliable, robust, and intelligent irrigation controller for use in areas where reliable weather prediction, water supply, and power supply are not found.

Upon completion of the project, our device will be able to determine the moisture level of the soil, the water level in a water tank, and the temperature, humidity, insolation, and barometric pressure of the environment. It will perform some processing on the observed environmental factors to determine if rain can be expected soon, Comparing this knowledge to the dampness of the soil and the amount of water in reserves will either trigger a command to begin irrigation or maintain a command to not irrigate the fields. This device will allow farmers to make much more efficient use of precious water and also avoid dehydrating crops to death.

In developing nations, power is also of concern because it is not as readily available as power here in the United States. For that reason, our device will incorporate several amp-hours of energy storage in the form of rechargeable, maintenance-free, lead acid batteries. These batteries will charge while power is available from the grid and discharge when power is no longer available. This will allow for uninterrupted control of irrigation. When power is available from the grid, our device will be powered by the grid. At other times, the batteries will supply the required power.

The project is titled S.I.P. because it will reduce water wasted and will be very power efficient (by extremely conservative estimates, able to run for 70 hours without input from the grid), thus sipping on both power and water.

We welcome all questions and comments regarding our project in its current form.

Thank you all very much for you time and consideration!