..

Technovanza 08

CONCEPT
Prototype of a 3-Dimensional motion crane to be

implemented on port for cargo handling of size 10x10x6 Crane used to load and unload cargo from ships to the port Automation of crane using microcontrollers to follow exact X,Y,Z coordinates entered

CONCEPT
Prototype of automated railed carry truck to transport

containers from jetty to cargo hub based on separate microcontroller Perfectly timed execution by communication between microcontrollers

CHALLENGES
Control motion of the huge crane
Efficient algorithm to make the crane reach exact XYZ

co-ordinates Microcontroller interfacing with hardware

ATTEMPT
It was the first attempt at VJTI to make working

prototypes in the technical festival It gave a lot of exposure to actual Mechatronics It was a great learning experience to mix the programming with digital circuits and the Machine We learnt what does it mean by burning midnight oil

VJTIs First Attempt

What is Robocon?
The ABU Asia-Pacific Robot Contest or ABU

ROBOCON is an annual international project organized by the ABU. Doordarshan Robocon India started in the year 2002 with four teams participating from reputed institutes.

Who can take Part?

Engineering and Diploma Students are allowed to

participate in the competition. under standardized rules, entrants test their creativity and technology in an open competition. About 40 teams turned up at Robocon 2008, each having paid an entry fees of Rs. 8000

Common Misconceptions
Robocon is more about learning than about

competition and winning. We learnt a lot, not only in the field of robotics but also about project management and most importantly about team work. Robocon is not a festival. There are
No Food Courts No array of Random Events No Informal Events No Song and Dance It isnt a conference - there are no talks, no presentations No invited guests other than the judges and the sponsors

and at times a few political bigwigs.

So What is it?
Robocon is a grueling 4-5 day period, and that

doesnt include the 4 months before you get there. Very Little food whenever we get a chance to walk to the place they give food. Very little sleep here and there in the pit area, with a rather thin carpet/rug/whatever its called separating you from the bare ground of one of MIT's playground, a heated Soldering Iron 6 inches from your head, and someone using a Power Drill about 3 feet away.

Why all the stress?

In this time, teams from all the colleges work

round the clock reassembling, testing, and retrofitting robots to add functionality and fine tune their strategies, targeting individual teams and adapting their game plan according to what they think the opponent will do at each match. Things break, and need to be fixed. Bugs show their ugly faces, accidents happen, and tempers are usually on a very short fuse.

Why go through that much tension?

Robocon somehow pulls you back. Its been barely six

months since were back and were all enthusiastic to go for the finals in Pune over the weekend. The most attractive thing is the amount of talent under one roof, always gives something or the other to learn.

VJTI at Robocon 2008

Although it was VJTIs first attempt, we pulled off

a fairly decent standing. In the preliminary rounds, we faced an uphill task because of our autonomous machine giving us unexpected problems, due to an array of reasons. However we managed faced all odds to beat one team comprehensively, lost out narrowly to IIT Madras on violations and lost against MIT, the current India runners up.

OUR INSPIRATION
Driving in heavy traffic has become cumbersome in major metros. Autodrive is a way of mitigating this issue. It is an attempt to improve safety, comfort and economy through automation. Its an innovative traffic solution system.

PROJECT INSIGHT
The auto-D feature comes into play in high traffic region where the car usually shifts between the 1st and the 2nd gear, invoking partial automation. In this phase partial control of the car is shifted to an onboard controller. This involves automation of car control systems : brake, clutch, accelerator and the gear box. Sensors help incorporate Collision avoidance system and autobraking override to improve safety

INTERFACING
Servo motors are calibrated to bring about proportional changes in pedal angles via pulley arrangement. Servos connected to fork system to control the gearbox. Sensors mounted on front and rear of the car.

GEAR VIDEO

The avia is a venture into aerial surveillance: A flying machine which is capable of hovering and moving with 6 degrees of freedom as well as go for long range surveillance with real time video transfer.

Capabilities..
The avia will be capable of vertical take-off and landing with short distances.
The wings will allow for efficient long distance

reconnaissance coupled with highly maneuverable recon. For short distances. The avia will be able to detach the wings during short range surveillance. Real time video transfer will form an integral part of surveying.

Whats being done..

The first prototype with hovering abilities is ready with further developments being carried out. The final bot will be a rotorcraft equipped with a set of wings for power efficient, long distance surveillance. The live video transfer will enable the pilot to

control the avia with ease as well as help in transferring data on the go.

Whats been done..

Here are a few pics and video of the first prototype..

Whats next
The machine is to be refined further and every

degree of freedom is to be achieved step by step. Real time video transfer is to be perfected. Stability of the craft is to be maintained at all times.

And finally..
The avia is sure a promising beginning for aeronautics in vjti..

 Micromouse is an autonomous self contained machine designed to get

to the centre of a maze in shortest possible time. A Micromouse essentially comprises of a drive motor or motors to move it. a steering and turning method. sensors to detect the presence or absence of maze walls. sensors or control logic to oversee the action of the rest and keep the vehicle 'on track' or to solve the maze. batteries to provide power.

 The premise of the MicroMouse contest is simple: design

and build a small, autonomous robot that will find the center of a maze. The mouse that makes it to the center of the maze is the winner. If more than one mouse makes it, then the mouse that gets there the fastest will be the winner. Contestants are given 10 to 15 minutes to solve the maze, so many return to the start cell to make multiple runs. The fastest of these runs becomes the official time. Championship-level mice can make it from the start cell to the finish cell in well under 20 seconds with top speeds averaging 2 meters/sec, now that's a fast mouse!

The maze

Micromouse at IIT TECHFEST

this is how its really done!

 Other than the locations of the start and destination cells,

nothing else is known about the paths within the maze. The walls of the maze can be set up in any configuration by the judges in charge of the contest. You will find that there are always several solutions to the maze. This prevents robots from simply following the left or right walls to solve the maze (try it in the example above, it worn't work), and it makes the contest more interesting since "smarter" mice will look for the quickest path.

 Computing Power
Propulsion Sensors Chassis Batteries

 When your mouse can move about the maze reliably, it

must then be able to solve the maze. There are several popular algorithms for doing this. The wall follower Depth Search First The Flood-Fill Algorithm The Modified Flood-Fill Algorithm

Whats all the noise about

Arthros is a project which deals with the creation of robots

which make use of jointed appendages for locomotion.

These include

Biped Humanoid Robots Quadraped Robots Hexapod Robots Octapod Robots

the list goes on and on and on

Why even bother

The very fact that 97% of the terrestrial population of

the world requires legs for locomotion makes it imperative that robots master the skill of walking. These mechanical arthropods would have to run, jump and climb in the cities of our future

 Unlike conventional robots which use motors and

wheels for locomotion these bots explore a whole new dimension in robotics Thus these bots help us and apply understand concepts about balance and gait

 These bots are extensively used for unmanned

terrestrial exploration of treacherous terrains Examples of these include the Mars rover (we obviously arent sending any of our bots to mars but then again it doesnt to hurt to imagine now does it!) and bots used to explore active volcanoes.

Getting Down and Dirty

We intend to work initially on making a manually

operated hexapod capable of moving over uneven terrain and future prospects could be1. Making it completely autonomous . 2. Making it capable of recognizing its environment on the basis of temperature, pressure sensors and image processing.

Image Processing
Nature is the best engineer

Thus its the best source of inspiration for any

engineer! Sight is found in most complex living creatures. Eyesight is one of the most complex forms of sensory organs.

Whats the big deal?

At first glance, sight seems very easy

Imagine being able to differentiate based on colour,

intensity, hue, saturation, shadows! Now imagine doing this in a matter of a few microseconds, all the time! Needless to say the potential is really large, but the complications mind boggling.

How can we do this on a Computer?

Camera = Eye

The camera is a fairly good eye

But we need something that figures out what the

camera is showing! So if you see someone you know on the screen, you know its him, your PC just knows where to put the pixels and the RGB values

Where is the Brain?

To emulate the brain, we accept images and code in a

software called MATLAB MATLAB = MATrix LABoratories MATLAB is a fairly complex software having many toolboxes, one of which is the Image Processing Toolbox Anyone can learn MATLAB, and it is VERY useful for engineering applications Image Processing using MATLAB can be used to recognize colours and shapes.

Image Processing
Using Matlab MATLAB Provides toolbox for, Image acquisition Image processing Many more Many utility functions for fast image analysis Easy interface with any webcam or grabber card Excellent for initial experimentation

Image Processing (Contd.)

Colour detection Involves finding the pixel within certain range Absolute distance, Euclidean distance, etc. Choice of colour space is important Centroid detection Find the pixels comprising the object Find the average of X and Y co-ordinates

Cool, Lets Make the Terminator! Or Transformers

Or we could keep things simple and just make a robot

that can follow a ball in a controlled environment With this, we can play Robosoccer, the intention of this project We intend to combine some codes in MATLAB that process images quick enough, along with a robot which carries out a required algorithm.