senior design project!

well the last 2 quarters me and my friend have been working on our senior design project for electrical engineering. It's basically a tank you can control through the internet, its got video feedback and a turret you can fire.





you can switch the gun out for a robotic arm if you want. Diffuse a bomb, open a soda....idno use your imagination.



Heres a youtube link of the first demo we got on vid:



We didn't load the gun with any ammo because we were in a school lab filled with faculty, you can still see the gun recoiling when you instruct it to fire. Ill get a video of it firing real rounds soon, its pretty intense (like scary intense, that thing will leave some serious bruises on you).

I wish we had more time / money to fabricate our own steel casing but we were happy with the results.

anyways hope you enjoy

SWEET! I've always wondered about those things controlled through the internet. How do you manage to do that with the controls and video feed, internet connection, etc?

the video feed sends a signal to the computer on it's own, its independent of the chassis control. The wifi module on the robot is what receives the data when you are using the web browser or whatever to control it. Once the module gets the stream of data it passes it to the micro controller(your chip is already programmed and knows what to do, so if data 10101011111 comes in it will go forward. It will recognize those commands). Once the micro controller gets the stream of data and knows what to do with it, its passed on further the chain of command such as the motor controllers and h bridges that tell the motors and other peripherals what to do.

Originally Posted by VAMZ

the video feed sends a signal to the computer on it's own, its independent of the chassis control. The wifi module on the robot is what receives the data when you are using the web browser or whatever to control it. Once the module gets the stream of data it passes it to the micro controller(your chip is already programmed and knows what to do, so if data 10101011111 comes in it will go forward. It will recognize those commands). Once the micro controller gets the stream of data and knows what to do with it, its passed on further the chain of command such as the motor controllers and h bridges that tell the motors and other peripherals what to do.

that is awesome!

Originally Posted by VAMZ

the video feed sends a signal to the computer on it's own, its independent of the chassis control. The wifi module on the robot is what receives the data when you are using the web browser or whatever to control it. Once the module gets the stream of data it passes it to the micro controller(your chip is already programmed and knows what to do, so if data 10101011111 comes in it will go forward. It will recognize those commands). Once the micro controller gets the stream of data and knows what to do with it, its passed on further the chain of command such as the motor controllers and h bridges that tell the motors and other peripherals what to do.

sweet

great job, now i wanna see it shoot ammo.

how accurate is it and its range?

i thought it was like the size of a go kart so i laughed when i saw the youtube video

that's really cool i wish i had the ability to do something like that

The recoil of the turret doesnt flip it backwards? What kind of rounds are you firing?

Originally Posted by Dominancex

sweet

great job, now i wanna see it shoot ammo.

how accurate is it and its range?

its pretty accurate, not the best - we wanted to get the basic gist of the project down first. Robot itself could go to about 328 ft indoors (depending on walls, etc.) and 1000 ft line of sight.

Originally Posted by E36Eric

The recoil of the turret doesnt flip it backwards? What kind of rounds are you firing?

Turret was secured well within the base of the robot so there wasnt any recoil that we noticed. The wheels are also pretty strong DC motors so they would not be pushed back by the force of the gun. I believe its .177 pointed Remington ammo that was used.

Originally Posted by keviNpx415

i thought it was like the size of a go kart so i laughed when i saw the youtube video

that's really cool i wish i had the ability to do something like that

The size that we decided to go for was the most cost effective one. haha I was actually approached by someone building these vehicles on a larger scale right after my presentation to the professors - his company was making them on military APC's. However his were running on standard RC controls, he wanted me to help build a wifi base.

thats awesome! did you name it? I would have.....

What kind of board are you using to handle all the IO? I just finished a class where we used Arduino microcontrollers and it was pretty straight forward. We made a Rube Goldberg inspired voting machine as the final class project. Each student was responsible for creating one module that would fit into the sequence of the machine. When the documentation is finished I'll link you.

sickness

Can it cook, clean your room, wash the car, and talk to your gf when she gets annoying? If those answers are no then Im not even going to bother watching the vid....

Lol JK.. Nice bot you got there I wish I had the capacity to make one of those. That would be fun. What was the total in expenses if you dont mind telling me?

hey look! its wall-e

very nice man!

you go to UCR right?

Originally Posted by baybimmer14

hey look! its wall-e

Originally Posted by Studdly_Studright

thats awesome! did you name it? I would have.....

yes we named it ARES - the god of war, found it fitting haha

Originally Posted by Black107

What kind of board are you using to handle all the IO? I just finished a class where we used Arduino microcontrollers and it was pretty straight forward. We made a Rube Goldberg inspired voting machine as the final class project. Each student was responsible for creating one module that would fit into the sequence of the machine. When the documentation is finished I'll link you.

we used the hc12 minidragon microcontroller.

Originally Posted by Baja Panty 33

Can it cook, clean your room, wash the car, and talk to your gf when she gets annoying? If those answers are no then Im not even going to bother watching the vid....

Lol JK.. Nice bot you got there I wish I had the capacity to make one of those. That would be fun. What was the total in expenses if you dont mind telling me?

we were lucky to get a grant from this engineering firm called northrop grumman. but from our pockets we spent around 600?

Originally Posted by m330

very nice man!

you go to UCR right?

yup.

Badass!!

for sure man. amazing project.

i think one of my homies told me about a project that sounds similar to this

Originally Posted by m330

for sure man. amazing project.

i think one of my homies told me about a project that sounds similar to this

do you go to ucr?