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Week 6 (Oct. 3, 2018): Mapping out the Placement of Components


This week, I brainstormed more ideas for the circuit components we would use as well as their eventual placement in the pod car.

For the detection/collision-prevention sensor, we could use either an ultrasonic sensor, an IR-sensor, or a time-of-flight sensor. We could then mount the sensor on a servo motor, then have it continuously rotate 45 degrees to act as a makeshift Lidar and scan for any podcars in front of it and 45 degrees to the right of it. If an object is detected within a certain distance, notify the passengers (i.e. audience in our case) via piezoelectric speakers and stop the pod car.

Another thing to consider is that last year, the podcar would not stop at a station; it would go past a station because the RFID would not register fast enough because the pod car was moving too quick. One possible idea I am hoping to look into is to incorporate a GPS on the XBEE module.

Before leaving the SPDC, I took note of how the components were connected within the podcar: the Arduino MEGA with a shield on top and with the XBee module on top of the shield, along with female header pins for: the ultrasonic sensor, the RFID tag sensor, two non-momentary pushback buttons, and a RGB LED, and the Servo. 

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