group lab report - "racing car"
TRANSCRIPT
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UNIVERSITY OF EAST LONDON
Group A2Group Design (EE2004)
10th may, 2013
Patrick Vieira
Isabel Coutinho
Samarth Gohil
Course : B.ENG (Hons.) Electricaland Electronics EngineeringYear : TwoSemester : BModule : Group DesignUnit Coordinator : H.hakimazari and K.Yeo
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Table of Contents1 Acknowledgement...............................................................................................3
2 Abstract...............................................................................................................3
3 Introduction.........................................................................................................3
4 Communication and Decisions............................................................................4
4.1 Meetings and Communication.......................................................................4
4.2 Decisions.......................................................................................................4
5 Apparatuses and Components Used................................................................... 6
5.1 The Vehicle:..................................................................................................6
5.2 Basic Specifications & Requirements............................................................7
5.3 Components used......................................................................................... 7
6 Design and Implementation................................................................................8
6.1 The sensors ..................................................................................................8
6.2 Comparator (LM339)..................................................................................15
6.3 Logic Gates................................................................................................. 18
6.4 Driver..........................................................................................................23
6.5 The Gears....................................................................................................24
7 Summary of the Design Evolution ....................................................................25
8 The Race........................................................................................................... 26
9 Conclusion.........................................................................................................28
10 Contribution...................................................................................................28
11 References.....................................................................................................28
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1 Acknowledgement
We would like to show gratitude towards all the group members of A2 to get the
given task done very well before the deadlines. We also would like to thank our
teachers and lab technicians for their support and knowledge they shared with us
during the task and mainly the University of East London for providing us such
environment to work under.
2 Abstract
The aim of this group project is to build a vehicle that meets the agreed
regulations and that is capable to follow the track and ideally complete it without any
physical assistance. The diameter of the vehicle must not excided more than 10
inches and the total cost of the vehicle must not be higher than 55. The track
consists of a line with a contrasting background colour. The track given to us was
black line of 40.5 mm in width in white coloured background board.
3 IntroductionA robot is a machine that can carry out multiple instructions that are provided to it
automatically. The history of robots dates back to 350 B.C., when a Greek
mathematician, Archytas built a mechanical bird known as The Pigeon that was
propelled by steam (NASA). Now with advancement in science and technology
robots are as advanced as Hondas ASIMO (2002), a humanoid robot that was
capable of doing many things humans can do. Robots have been one of mans most
amazing inventions.
The robot (vehicle) developed in this project is a line following robot (vehicle),
which is a mobile machine instructed to follow given path or a line. The final robot
has six sensors installed underneath the back part of the body, and two DC motors
drive wheels. Two comparators and logical gates (one AND gate, one OR gate and
one INVERTER gate) were used to take the signal of the six sensors and control the
wheels. The Infrared Light Sensor used sends infrared light to a surface and the
sensor captures the reflected infrared radiation. The sensor will know if the surface is
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black or white based on the intensity of the light. If it is black surface the output is
logical level 1 and if it is white surface the logical level is 0. The control of the
vehicle is very easy to understand and depends on the position of the six sensors on
the track. A figure representing the track is showed below:
Figure 1: Image of the track
In some cases the vehicle will move forward and other cases one of the wheels
will stop, making the vehicle turn to left or right. Just to illustrate: if the two middle
sensors are senses a black line and all the other four sensors are on white, the
logical circuit will provide an output that tells both motors to go forward. All of the
other cases will be discussed in further sections.
4 Communication and Decisions
4.1 Meetings and Communication
The team decided to communicate via mobile phones mostly and sometimes via
email. To facilitate this, the team members exchanged their details. It was decided
that a weekly meeting was sufficient to successfully complete the project. If anymore
meetings were required, these would be decided by the team as work progresses.Meetings involved practical work and writing the report for the project.
4.2 Decisions
The project was divided into two parts, first was the practical sessions which
consists in twelve weeks of lab group work to produce the vehicle to follow a track.
And the second part was to produce the report which can explain each session and
all the ideas including the ones is not been implemented for various reasons.
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The research for the project was started by just looking into the general areas
provided in the project objectives rather than looking into any specification to
construct a line following vehicle. The result was to use one of the following two
methods: microcontroller or logical gates. Our first option was to build the circuit
using microcontroller and the backup plan was to build the circuit using logic gates.
Microcontrollers are more efficient and it would not be necessary to use so many
components of the laboratory, making the vehicle lightweight. However, after further
researches, it was possible to notice that microcontrollers require a large knowledge
in programming language, and because of the three members of the group do not
have a domain in C and assembly languages, it would be easier to use logic gates.
The final option chosen were completely agreed by all the members of group.
The analysis of the research led to the next step which was to finalise what we
exactly want our vehicle to do by using the chosen methods and what other
supportive components it would be necessary. Thus we came across the designs for
the various circuits we need for each section of the vehicle, such as sensor circuits,
comparator circuit, group of logic gates circuit to get a function to drive the vehicle,
current amplifying circuit and motor driver circuit.
This stage of the project started with building up the circuit on the proto-board
and tested it. Than we moved to the next stage where we build up sensor circuit and
the main circuit on strip board and tested them. We made changes according to the
need and finally made it work perfectly. The main problem was how to arrange the
six sensors on vehicle and that was discovered with try and error basis too. We tried
putting various numbers of the sensors at different distance to get the most possible
accurate response. Same as this we tried to reduce the number of strip boards used
to build the main circuit to keep it compact and less in weight. Another issue foundduring the project was a problem in the gears of one of the motors; the gears were
slipping and the entire buggy was replaced. Finally the vehicle was up to the
requirements of the project and ready to take participate in the race.
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5 Apparatuses and Components Used
5.1 The Vehicle:
Figure 2: Image of the vehicle with the six sensors.
The Image shows the bottom surface of the vehicle. Three ground contact points;
two red wheels and a caster for turning, a fourth point (red arrow) that keeps the
vehicle balanced.
The budget given as mentioned before was 55 which counts the initialcomponents given by the university, the cost of these components make a total of
14.50 which leaves us with a total of 35 to spend in components required to
accomplish the specifications of the project. Unfortunately all the components we
used in our vehicle were available in the university only and them supposed not to
take in account as them will be reused by university. So the list of components and
their prices for our vehicle are given in table 1.
Components Cost Quantity Total
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6V DC motors with
a gear box for each
motor
7.00 2 14.00
A battery
compartment forfour batteries AA
0.50 1 0.50
Total cost 14.50
Table 1: Table showing the cost of the components.
5.2 Basic Specifications & Requirements
Maximum budget: 55
Track: The vehicle can run on
4 AA batteries
Maximum applied voltage: 6V
Strip boards
No excided 10 inches diameter
Proto-boards
Digital Multimeter
Soldering machine
Wires
5.3 Components used
6x Infrared emitter GAAS ( SFH409 RAPID 58-0400)
6x Infrared sensors (SFH309 RAPID 58-0425)
1x Inverter: HEF4049BP
1x AND Gate: HCF4081BE7
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1x OR Gate: HCF4072BE
2x Comparator: LM339N
1x Motor driver: L293D
One variable resistor
Resistor of the following values: 150 , 8.2k, 1k, 15k.
1 Switch on/off
6 Design and Implementation
6.1 The sensors
Infrared sensors (IR) consist of a transmitter and a receiver. They use light to
sense. An LED emits light (transmitter) which is reflected back into a photodiode
(sensor). The amount of reflected light back into the sensors increases as the
distance of the object decreases. IR sensors have disadvantages as most of them
cannot detect objects from far distance such as around 25mm with exceptions to a
few which are very expensive. They can also give error in readings if not kept away
from bright light such as sun light or UV light or interrupted with any other infrared
signals around. Sensors used in our project are Infrared emitter (SFH409 RAPID 58-
0400) and Infrared sensors (SFH309 RAPID 58-0425).
SFH 409 - A light-emitting diode is a semiconductor device that emits visible lightwhen an electric current passes through it.
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Figure 3: Image of the emitting diode.
The specifications of the emitter can be found in Table 2 and Table 3:
Maximum Ratings at 25 C
Description Symbol Value Unit
Operating and storage temperature
range
Tstg 55 ... + 100 C
Junction temperature Tj 100 C
Reverse voltage VR 5 V
Forward current IF 100 mA
Surge current IFSM 3 A
Power dissipation Ptot 165 mW
Thermal resistance RthJA 450 K/W
Table 2: Maximum Ratings at 25 C for the emitter
Characteristics at 25 C
Description Symbol Value Unit
Wavelength at peak emission.
IF = 100 m A,
tp = 20 ms
peak 950 nm
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Spectral bandwidth at 50 % ofImax
IF = 100 m A, tp = 20 ms 55 nm
Half angle 20 Deg
Active chip area A 0.09 mm2
Dimension of the active chip area L x W 0.3 x 0.3 mm
Distance chip surface to lens top H 2.6 mm
Capacitance Co 25 pF
Table 3: Characteristics at 25 C for the emitter
SFH 309 - A phototransistor is a type of photo detector that has the ability of
change light into either current or voltage, depending on the mode of operation.
Figure 4: Image of the phototransistor
Maximum Ratings at 25 C
Description Symbol Value Unit
Operating and storage temperature range Tstg 55 ... + 100 C
Dip soldering temperature 2 mm distance
from case bottom, soldering time t 5 s
Ts 260 C
Iron soldering temperature 2 mm distance
from case bottom, soldering time t 3 s
Ts 300 C
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Collector-emitter voltage VCE 35 V
Collector current IC 15 mA
Collector surge current ICS 75 mA
Power dissipation Ptot 165 mW
Thermal resistance RthJA 450 K/W
Table 4: Maximum Ratings at 25 C for the phototransistor.
Characteristics at 25 C
Description Symbol Value Unit
Wavelength of max. Sensitivity S max 860 nmSpectral range of sensitivity
S = 10 % of Smax 380...1150 nm
Radiant of chip area mm2
Dimension of the active chip area L x W 0.45 x 0.45 mmx mm
Distance chip front to case surface H 2.4 ... 2.8 mm
Half angle 12 deg.
Capacitance CCE 5.0 pF
Dark current VCE = 25 V, E = 0 ICEO 1( 200) nA
Table 5: Characteristics as 25 C for the phototransistor.
The selection of the sensors was a no-brainer, mainly due to the fact there was
no other device provided which could detect the difference between white and black.
It was discussed how they would be placed and tried out different configurations. We
eventually realised that the only way to use them effectively was to have them side
by side, much like an opto-coupler which has been made by hand. As for the number
of sensors, we knew it could be done with three; however we felt that with four, the
buggy would move more accurately along the track (this was also later changedduring the testing stages for six sensors).
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Basically, the four sensors would be in these positions:
Figure 5: Image showing the arrangement of the four sensors.
A picture showing the space of each sensor is showed below:
Figure 6: Image showing the distance from the sensors.
As showed in the picture, the distance between the four sensors that are aligned
is 1in. The two extra sensors were put 1.25 in behind the aligned ones. Another
measurement that is important to consider is the distance of the track to the sensors;
this distance is 0.3 in.
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1 in
1 in
1.25
1.25 in
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After consulting the datasheet, it was calculated the theoretical resistance each
component would have to be placed under in order for their circuitry to melt and
render them useless. Naturally, Ohms Law was a sensible rule to follow and so we
found the lowest possible resistance for each component.
OHMs law:
V = I x R, I is the current and R the resistor
V=6V and IE= 0.1A (from the data sheet for infrared emitter)
So from the OHMs law RE=60
And IS=0.015 (from the data sheet for infrared sensor)
So from the OHMs law RS= 400
The diagram presented below, shows the connections of the sensor and the
emitter:
Figure 7: Emitter and sensor connections, with R1 = RE and R2 = RS, L1 = emitter and
T1 = sensor.
However; as previously mentioned, that was the minimum resistance that each
component could take. Not only that, but after testing the resistors in practice with an
Ohm-meter, they dropped below the theoretical values. This was a problem since we
were risking breaking the components and also using a lot of current which could go
towards running the motor, for example. Some tests helped us deciding which valueswould be better:
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RE () RS () IE (mA)
100 10 47.2
470 470 99.2
150 3.3 k 32.5
270 10 k 18
330 22 k 14.8
560 56 k 8.9
Table 6: Sensors tested to help the decision of which one to use.
In the configuration given below,A white paper at 35mm away from the sensorgives a voltage of 4.1V black gives 4.5V at 35mm. Then 150 was replaced with 330
to test if it is still working. To get the same reading with white paper, it has to be
100mm away and the advantage of that was taking less current thou the
disadvantage was it must be kept close enough to the track. Vehicles platform is
48mm to the lowest part (wheels). Under the same conditions resistors were
changed.
Figure 8: Configuration of the emitter and sensor.
Checking with a different device gave following:
Resistor
values
()
Distance
(mm)
150 30
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330 20
240 21
390 17
463 12
551 10
Table 7: Resistors and the distance of the sensors from the track
The minimum was sound to be 400 but that results in a lot of current being
drown from the battery. After some more tests found that using 1.5 M black
detected 3.6V and white detected 1.5V and below at 10 mm.
After recording many different resistor values for both the sensor and the emitter
as shown before, it was observed that the emitter worked just as well while
experiencing a resistance of 150 and the sensor with a resistance of 8.2k. These
were the values which were implemented into our final circuit and the amount of
current that the six sensors drain was 195mA.
6.2 Comparator (LM339)A comparator is a device that compares two voltages orcurrents and switches its
output to indicate which is larger. In the image beside its the pin diagram is given for
the comparator IC used to make the vehicle. The comparator is essentially an Op
Amp with negative and positive inputs. The voltage at the positive terminal is
compared to the negative one and if the positive terminals voltage was greater than
the one at the other, the Op Amp would adopt the Vccs voltage at its output.
However, if the voltage level at the negative terminal is greater than the positive one,
the Op Amp would adopt the voltage level at ground (zero Volts). An illustration of
the comparator is shown below:
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Figure 9: Operation of the Comparator
The comparator in this case is important to ensure that the input of the logical
circuit will be zero or 6 V, because the output of the sensors is not exactly this
values. A table presenting the values of the outputs of the six sensors are shown
below:
Colour
Logic
1
Logic
0
Pink
(S5) 5.77 1.98Purple
(S1) 5.49 2.02Green
(S2) 5.61 2.47Blue
(S3) 5.53 1.93Yellow
(S4) 5.25 1.49Orange
(S6) 4.9 1.73Table 8: Values of the Sensors
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Our sensor circuit was very well understood. Whenever the pairs heads were
facing a white sheet of paper, the average recorded voltage level amongst all
sensors was [1.936V] and when no infrared light was detected by the sensor, the
average voltage level was [5.425V]. Using this information, a suitable reference
voltage could be decided upon and supplied to the negative terminal of the
comparator. The value decided was 3.68V as it was the average value between the
two values.
The LM339 IC used had four comparators inside it, and each of them worked
comparing its inverting and non-inverting inputs, putting zero or 6 V in the output
depending on which voltage is greater than the other. For the project two
comparators were used, since we used six sensors. The structure and pins of thefirst LM339 are showed below:
Figure 10: Pins of the Comparator
Sensor 1 holds an input by pin 6 and 7, and the output goes to pin 1;
Sensor 2 holds an input by pin 4 and 5, and the output goes to pin 2;
Sensor 3 holds an input by pin 10 and 11, and the output goes to pin 13;
Sensor 4 holds an input by pin 8 and 9, and the output goes to pin 14;
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Sensor 5 holds an input by pin 6 and 7, and the output goes to pin 1 ( this is
in the second comparator)
Sensor 6 holds an input by pin 8 and 9, and the output goes to pin 14
Finally, pin 3 is Vcc and pin 12 is GND. Rest of the pins has no use in thiscase.
With further testing regarding the sensors distance from the track, the voltage
level varied wildly. This would become a problem further down the line when the
decision making process would be implemented. The comparator completely fixes
this problem by adopting one of two ends of the spectrum, maximum voltage and
minimum voltage. One could say that it is demonstrating a logic one and a logic zero.
6.3 Logic Gates
The gates used in the circuit were:
Inverter (HEF4049BP): Inverter is specially used to invert any signal and it
behaves as given in the truth table. In the image at top we can see the symbol of an
inverter, below in the middle we can see the truth table for it and at the bottom its pin
diagram given for the HEF4049BP inverter.
Figure 11: Inverter
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AND Gate (HCF4081BE): The AND gate is a basic digital logic gate that
implements logical conjunction and it behaves according to the truth table given. In
the image beside its symbol of 2 input and gate, in the middle its truth table and at
the bottom its pin diagram for the IC.
Figure 12: AND gate
OR Gate (HCF472BE): The OR gate is a basic digital logic gate that
implements logical conjunction and it behaves according to the truth table given
below. In the image below its symbol of 2 input OR gate at very first, next is the truth
table and at the bottom its pin diagram for the IC. The OR gate used in the project
has four inputs.
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Figure 13: OR Gate
The comparator prepared the buggys design to work in a digital mode. As
previously mentioned, after considering many different aspects of decision making,
logic circuits were decided upon to be implemented.
The first step which had to be carried through was the creating of the truth table
for the four sensors.
Sensor
1
Sensor
2
Sensor
3
Sensor
4 ML MR
0 0 0 0 0 00 0 0 1 1 00 0 1 0 1 00 0 1 1 1 00 1 0 0 0 10 1 0 1 X X0 1 1 0 1 10 1 1 1 1 01 0 0 0 0 11 0 0 1 X X
1 0 1 0 X X1 0 1 1 X X
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1 1 0 0 0 11 1 0 1 X X1 1 1 0 0 11 1 1 1 X X
Table 9: Truth Table of the logic circuit
The group discussed which logics were possibilities that could arise, and then
decided on if they were to arise, what would be sensible for the motor to do. The
logic 1 demonstrates black being detected by the sensor while logic 0 being white.
For the motors ML & MR, logic 1 shows the motor functioning at full capacity while
logic 0 tells it to stop. The X functions were given to logic sequences which could
never happen, as agreed by the group. These functions can therefore be treated as
either logic 1 or 0 since they are essentially dont care functions. An imagepresenting the options is shown below:
Figure 12: Position of the sensors
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The next stage is to produce a Karnaugh Map in order to determine the Boolean
algebra expression for the logic circuit. The groups which are grouped together have
logics in common. Both motors have three loops and so will have three terms in their
expression. The left motor has the expression:
S1S2\S3S4 OO O1 11 1OOO 0 1 1 1O1 0 1 1 111 0 1 1 01O 0 1 1 1
Table 10: Karnaugh Map of Left Motor
Left Motor =
While the right has the expression:
S1S2\S3S4 OO O1 11 1OOO 0 0 0 0O1 1 1 0 111 1 1 1 1
1O 1 1 1 1
Table 11: Karnaugh Map of Right Motor
Right Motor
These two Boolean algebra expressions had to have a schematic made for them,
in how everything would be connected.
This diagram below shows the sensor outputs being fed into the system from the
comparator, not from the sensor itself.
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Figure 13: Diagram Gates
The two sensors entered simply in the OR gates and the left sensor controls the
right motor and the right sensor controls the left motor. Therefore, the final output for
the left motor is:
And the final output for the right motor is:
By the end, the right motor was draining 228mA and the left motor was draining
201 mA.
6.4 Driver
The output signal of the logic circuit does not have the amount current to drive the
motor. So it was needed a current amplifier. To do that, it was used a type of
transistor named TIP 31A. The circuit improved is shown below:
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Figure 14: Amplifier Circuit
After making more researches, it was possible to conclude that if a driver was
used the vehicle could run faster, because it has a faster cut off, therefore, it made
the wheels stop quickly. The IC used was the L293D. The motor driver has the
function of driving two motors simultaneously. This chip enables to take 4 outputs
and turn them into 2 that can be reversed. So two motors can be controlled in both
directions instead of four in only one direction. Disadvantage of this chip is it can be
used to control only small motors, limited to 600mA. There is a 1.5V voltage drop
within the L293D driver chip. The motor driver were used like a common transistors
for the motors
6.5 The Gears
A gear is a rotating machine part having cut teeth which mesh with another
toothed part in order to transmit torque. Two or more gears working in tandem are
called a transmission and can produce a mechanical advantage through a gear ratio.
Such as a small motor spinning very fast can provide enough power for a device but
not enough torque. Geared devices can change the speed, torque, and direction of a
power source. This is how gears are important to look after to maximise the speed of
the vehicle and minimise the power consumption.
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A gear train is formed by mounting gears in a frame so that the eeth of the gears
engage. Gear teeth are designed to ensure the pitch circles od engaging gears roll
on each other without slipping, this provides a smooth transmission of rotation from
one gear to the another.
The gear ratio of a gear train is the ratio of the angular velocity of the input gear
ti the angular velocity of the output gear. The ratio can be directly calculated from the
numbers of teeth on the gears in the gear train and the torque ratio of the gear train
is known as its mechanical advantage.
For the motors & gears used in our vehicle:
No. Of gears Ratio Output shaft (R.P.M)1 9.6 625
2 28.8 208.3
3 86.4 69.4
4 259.2 23.1
5 777.6 7.7
6 2332.8 2.6
7 Summary of the Design Evolution
The original design included four sensors on a small strip board attached to thesupport pillar on the buggy. The group attempted to run the buggy on the test track
using transistors to amplify the current after the logic circuit. The buggy would not
make the turns as the wheels did not come to a stop fast enough.
The conclusion was reached that either we had to find a way to make the wheels
come to a stop faster or build the project with a bit more complexity so that it would
still make those turns regardless of their fault. At that moment in time, each motor
had three gears to drive it and; as it was known that adding in more gears would
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make it slower, that is what the group did to allow the buggy enough time to slow
down, stop and then make the turn. Unfortunately this was unsuccessful as the
wheel still took a long time to come to a halt.
It was noticed that when the wheel finally did come to a stop, part of the buggy
was still hovering above the track. This was consistent with both wheels on both left
and right 90 degree turns. A simple solution then came to light; placing two extra
sensors in the places where the buggy never left the track during the sharp turns
would play nicely into our current design. All that would have to be done is to add the
comparator output for each sensor into the respective OR gate for the correct motor
logic.
This idea played right into the groups hands as they watched their buggy travel
around the track, fault-free. This great success drove the team forward as they
sought ways to make the buggy faster. That was when they came across the motor
driver. This component is just like the transistor, except it looks just like an IC and the
power cut off is much faster. After integrating this into the design instead of the
transistors, the wheels stopped much faster around corners.
Now that the original problem with the buggy was a non-issue, the team took outone gear from each motor to make the total count four in each. This was the final
design which we raced with and came fourth in the competition.
8 The RaceRound 1- Qualifying Stage
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The instructions given to all groups were the same: robots are allowed two turnsin anti-clockwise on the track and the best time will be chosen. It is allowed to touchthe vehicle if needed but 5 seconds will be added to time for each touch as apenalty.
Eight groups emerged winners having time range from 16-50 secs; these groups
are A6,B16, A3, B13, A8, B14, B20, A2.
We had the third best time, 32sec.
Round 2- Quarter Final
Instruction- robots are allowed just one turn in anti clock wise on the track. Withthe same penalty of 5 seconds for each touch in the vehicle.
Now four best timings were chosen for the semi finals. To qualify for the semifinals there was a tie between two cars with 32 sec for the fourth position. One of thecars was ours and the other one was of group B14. So a tie breaker happened.Luckily we won the tie breaker with one second as our vehicle took the 32 secs a ndthe other one took 33secs.
So we were chosen for the semi finals with the other groups as: B16, A3, B13
and A2.
Round 3- Semi Final
Instruction was the same as quarter finals. Now only the best two went for thefinals.
We lost here. We secured fourth place with 32 secs.
Two vehicles selected for the finals were of group B13 and B16 with timings 15
sec and 17 sec in order.
Round 4- Final
Instructions were again same as the semi finals. Now the race was between two
winning cars from semi finals. Final winner won with 15secs best timing. Never theless even runners-up vehicles time was very near too, 16 sec.
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7/27/2019 Group Lab Report - "Racing Car"
29/29