Patrick Barrera's Progress for Spartan Superway

This week, I looked more into the induction charging. Currently, the implementing induction charging could prove to be a challenge since   LiPo batteries, such as the one that will power the motor, require special chargers. I have found some of these LiPo battery chargers, but they sacrifice either voltage or current, making them unsuitable for charging a 7.4 LiPo battery, the battery used last year. More discussion must be held with my teammate before reaching a decision on the motor.

This week, I looked more into the. I have used a GPS module before ( the GNSS GPS GLONASS module from AliExpress ), but it was a bit finicky due to its relative cheapness, and there’s no telling how it would send and receive the satellite signal at Maker’s Faire, on the day of. There are other options, though: Mini GPS GPRS Tracker SMS Network Bike Car Motorcycle Monitor GPS Locator ; Adafruit Ultimate GPS Breakout - 66 channel w/10 Hz updates ; Adafruit Ultimate GPS Logger Shield - Includes GPS Module ; GPS Receiver - EM-506 (48 Channel) . There are GPS applications, such as the one found on this DIY project on Instructables , called PayAsYouTrack. There is also a possibility of adding a GPS amplifier, though it seems the only place to purchase affordable ones is eBay. Should we choose to forgo the idea of using a GPS module that would both keep track of the location of the podcars and avoid collisions, we could still implement a vision sensor, such as an array of IR sensors, ...

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 pod...

Today, we delivered the first out of three Senior Project Presentations. The objective of our presentation was to discuss our team goals as well as our refined, conclusive design specifications. Although we stated, in our Presentation #1, that I would oversee the software side of the small-scale model and David would be in charge of the hardware, our duties will more than likely overlap with each other due to the interdependent nature of controls and mechatronics systems. In other words, a circuit and a controller are meaningless without the hardware, and the hardware, such as actuators, cannot be controlled without a programmed controller and driver. And, once again, our duties will also overlap with Small-Scale Bogie and Small-Scale Track, with more interaction with the Bogie team due to the bogie-motor connection.   Having said this, at the conclusion of our presentation, we received some feedback from Dr. Furman. He brought to our attention brushless gimbal motors, ...