Micro Mouse

Functional Description Introduction In todays world, robots are playing significant roles in many different parts of our lives. Their uses vary from means of transport to exploring outer space. And, the more the technology advances, the more sophisticated robots will be and the better life human beings will enjoy. For the senior project, therefore, I am proposing to design and construct a micro mouse, as a first step to the robotic world for myself. The micro mouse is a smart little gadget that navigates through obstacles without a humans assistance and finds its way out. Therefore, my project will demonstrate its ability to navigate in a maze along with its mobility. Description of Hardware The micro-mouse is a maze-solving robot. Although the micro-mouse is not fully qualified to be called as an artificial intelligence, it behaves like an A.I in some degree when It tries to solve the maze. Basically, the micro-mouse has a microcontroller to control the hardware and make decisions to navigate in a maze. It has sensors to receive the information about the walls around it in the maze and the information then will be used to position the micro-mouse and navigate in the maze. It will also have wheels and motors and independent power sources. Its dimension will not be greater than 25cm x 25cm x 25cm. Figure 1.1 shows its approximated prototype.

Figure 1.1 Micromouse

The micro-mouse will be placed at the start of maze and based on sensor inputs, navigate itself until it finds the finish. As it is shown in figure 1.2, a maze will be square and for this project, 5 X 5 cell maze will be used to demonstrate the performance of the mouse. I will mark the starting and destination point in the maze. The demonstration will be done when the mouse makes to the destination point.

Destination Cell

Micro-mouse

Start Cell Figure 1.2. Top view of 16x16 cell maze Functional Description of Hardware The micro-mouse will be constructed with the Motorola XC68HC912B32 microcontroller clocked by 16MHz crystal. It will have enough I/O pins for this project. The HC12 then controls the Left/Right motors based on the sensor inputs. There will be 6 infrared light sensors to detect walls and position the micro-mouse in the maze. Its possible to have more than one sensors on each side, left, right, and front, to give better resolutions in detecting walls and open slots in a maze. The infrared LED will emits the infrared light. If there is a wall, the infrared detector will receive the reflected light from the wall. The intensity of the reflected light will depend on how far the wall is located from the micromouse. Therefore, by knowing the level of the intensity, I can adjust the distance to detect the walls.

Two stepper motors will be used to control the wheels. By knowing the size of the maze, and the wheels, required pulses to pass one cell or to turn left/right in the maze can be calculated. The software, therefore, will be implemented based on these information. Then the HC12 will send signals to the motor drivers to control each motors based on the sensor inputs. Figure 1.3 shows the block diagram.

6 6 2

PORTA PORTATD PORTB XC68HC912B32

Infrar ed Senso rs
Motor Driver L-Motor the software block diagram.

5V Regulator

14.4V DC Battery Reset Xtal Reset circuitry 16Mhz crystal

R-Motor

Figure 1.3. Block Diagram

Functional Description of Software The software will be an important part to determine the performance and accuracy for this project. There will be 3 main modules: a sensor module, motor module, and a main module. The sensor module only writes high or low to the PortA depending upon the presence of walls. The main module reads the PortA and depending on the inputs, it writes the PortB. The motor module reads the PortB, and depending on the inputs, it controls the motors. Figure 1.4 shows

Main Module

Sensor Module

Motor Module

Figure 1.4. Software block diagram Development Plan The project development will begin during the winter break and be completed by June 2002. I will use a robotics kit and start working on the hardware portion first. And I will spend the rest of time developing software for the micro-mouse. A rough development plan schedule will be provided in table 1.3 below.
Dates 8-Jan-02 ~ 18-Jan-02 21-Jan-02 ~ 01-Feb-02 04-Fab-02 ~ 15-Feb-02 18-Feb-02 ~ 01-Mar-02 4-Mar-02 ~ 15-Mar-02 18-Mar-02 ~ 29-Mar-02 1-Apr-02 ~ 12-Apr-02 15-Apr-02 ~ 26-Apr-02 29-Apr-02 ~ 03-May-02 6-May-02 ~ 10-May-02 13-May-02 ~ 17-May-02 20-May-02 Tasks Assemble the micro-mouse body set (Assembling motors and wheels) Testing the motors and wheels (Constructing the motor circuit) Testing the infrared sensors (Constructing the sensor circuit) Testing the infrared sensors (Constructing the sensor circuit) Developing software (Algorithm) (Sensor module) Developing software (Algorithm) (Sensor module) Developing software (Algorithm) (Motor module) Developing software (Algorithm) (Main module) Developing software (Algorithm) (Sensor + Motor + Main modules) Mounting the main board Onto the micro-mouse body set Test the software with prototype (Debugging the system) Test the software with prototype

~ 24-May-02 27-May-02 ~ 31-May-02 03-Jun-02 ~ 07-Jun-02

(Debugging the system) Test the software with prototype (Debugging the system) Final prototype

Table 1.3 Development plan schedule Hardware and software development tools The development environment will be in the 340 Lab at Electronics department of Western Washington University as well as at home using PC. I will use C language to write a program for the micro-mouse. In the 340 Lab, the following development tools are available. The Motorola 68HC912B32EVB evaluation board Oscilloscopes Digital Multimeters Solderless Breadboard Computers

The computers in the 340 Lab have all the software needed for the project such as the Introl Code development system, P-spice, Microsoft Office, and Logic Works.

Electrical Specifications Project Specification List Turns IR detecting range Max Speed Power Requirements List 15VDC HC12

Specification 90 at curve, 180 U-turn 3.3cm 0.28m/s

Specification 350mW 6

6 x Infrared Emitters 6 x Infrared Detector 2 x Motor Drivers 5 Op-Amps 6x 215ohms(Detector) 6x 200ohms(Emitter) Total Expected Battery Life

6*600mW+ 6*0.5mW = 6 * 0.5W =

6.6W 3.0W

2*0.66W = 1.32W 5 * 100mW = 500mW 516mW 389mW 12.675W 0.34hrs (20.4min)

Special Environment Requirements The Micro-mouse Operation 0 to 40C Temperature PCB Size Limit 150mm X 120mm X 80mm

Preliminary Parts List Item Costs time Power Dissipation 350mW Source Todd Morton Microrobot 3.15W each 0.5W(detector) 660mW each 7 Sanyo (H546) RadioShack Allegro WWU -

MC68HC912B3 $90 2 Micromouse $75 1 week Body set 2 stepper motors 2 wheels H546 Base 2 Ball-casters 6 Infrared $14.94 1 day Emitter and Detector sets 2 x SLA7024M $12.53 3 weeks (Motor Driver) Various $5 Resistors Various Tools $10 -

Total Price

$207.47