Team 2: Hoard Robotics

Jamis Martin

Trenton Andres

Jay Zifer

Brad Nowak

Project Overview

The goal of the project is to develop a team of robots that will utilize swarm behavior to accomplish tasks

The robots will communicate through an ad-hoc RF network, IR LEDs and sensors

Bots will be initialized by a non-moving control unit

Software Overview Microcontroller Interfaces

Sensors via ATDRF module via SPI

Flag-Driven designMain loop handles packet decoding, sensor polling,

decides direction to move, transmissionFlags for these are set by interrupt routine upon

reception Data decoding and turning algorithms depend

upon what program the bots are running Embedded C

Sensors

6 IR sensors, one on each side 6 IR LEDs, one on each side 2 Ambient light sensors

Main Loop

Record Sensor Data

Decode Packet Data

Determine Movement Direction

Transmit

If New Packet

If next to transmit

Transmission

Bot will send relevant data depending on the program being executed.

Ex. Light Search: ID, Light strength, Bots in range who found light, how long ago that light was found, etc.

Bot will turn on IR LEDsOthers can see where it isIt can see reflections and know where

obstacles are Signal next in queue to transmit

Reception

Handled upon receiving interrupt from RF module

Bots will unload data and decode it during the main loop

Ad-Hoc Network

Control unit will assign initial IDs based off who responds to it first

Bots will be added or dropped at end of transmission cycle.

Bots out of range will be dropped Bots lacking ID in range will be acquired

Dropping

If the bot does not receive any new packets after a set number of cycles, that bot will drop from network and lose ID.

If a bot is transmitting and does not receive any new packet after a set number of cycles, it will send a signal to decrement IDs and remove missing bot from network

Adding

At end of each round robin, transmitter will ask if there are any bots lacking IDs in range of it’s transmission.

Upon response, the signal will be put out to give the bot a new ID and update other bots tables so they know the swarm has grown.

Summary Flag-Driven software design in embedded

C Main loop handles packet decoding,

direction, transmission, sensor polling Interrupts from RF module upon receiving

packets Ad-hoc network will dynamically add and

remove bots RF packet data and decoding will change

depending on mode

Questions?

?