Clean Sweep
University of Florida
TI Innovation Challenge 2015 Project Report
Team Leader:
Jacob Easterling (jeasterling@ufl.edu)
Team Members: Team Khang Vo (khang.t.vo7@ufl.edu)
Advising Professor:
Dr. Arroyo (aarroyo@ufl.edu)
Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=814WVqzymG4
Provide link to video that you’ve uploaded to
www.ti.com/videos
Texas Instruments
Mentor (if applicable):
Date: 1-6-2015
Qty. List all TI analog IC and
TI processor part
number and URL
1) Explain where it was used in the project?
2) What specific features or performance made this
component well-suited to the design?
6
Used the LM386 to amplify the output signal of a microphone. I chose this chip for
LM386
ability to amplify small signals (mV) by x200 (V) without introducing a large
(Low Noise Audio Amplifier) its
amount of noise to the signal.
6
LM741
(Operational Amplifier)
Used the 741 Op-Amps to filter out frequencies picked up from the microphone
which are lower than 5kHz to prevent background noise from interfering with
measurements.
6
LM3915
(Dot/Bar Display Driver)
Used these ICs to convert the output signal from the microphone circuits into a
digital logarithmic input for the microprocessor(s). Given that my project relied on
synchronised time-stamping of input signals across three separate platforms, it
was critical that I had a very high speed analog to digital conversion. This chip
provided was my solution to this problem given that it can perform a single
conversion in nano-seconds.
9
MSP430 G2553
(microprocessor)
Given that my project was a team of five separate platforms I relied heavily on TIprocessors to manage all aspects of my design. I chose the G2553 because of its
compact (20-pin DIP), yet versatile size which allowed me to run multiple
processors on a single platform in parallel. These processors handled all of my
UART, ADC, and Capture and Compare operations
Submit your TI Innovation Challenge project to http://tiic-na.hartehanks.com. Your team is
encouraged to post your project as early as possible- Your submission will be kept offline
until the contest has officially closed!
Instructions:
 Submit your project and include the following documents
o Your full class report, which much include this TI project report.
o Upload a video of demonstrating your project to www.ti.com/videos (must log
into my.TI) and provide the link to that video in this project report. We’d love to
see your team engaging with TI products!
o Link to supplemental photos
Abstract
The purpose of my project was to design and develop a team of robots that could work
together clear objects out of a known perimeter. In order to make this possible I identified
three elements which each robot needed: situational awareness, communication, and task
management. Before we dive into these points let us first identify the task to complete. The
task I decided to take on was to use team work to identify and clear all objects out a known
area.
Situational Awareness
This block proposes the questions of “where am I?” and “where are my teammates?” In order
to answer these questions I developed a system of three sentry towers which can time stamp
a high frequency (roughly 8 kHz) when prompted. The signal is broadcasted by the Seeker
Bot (a small robot equipped with an amplified speaker) who will be traversing the known
perimeter looking for objects. Once locked on the signal, each tower can relay the distance
in-between the Tower and the Seeker Bot to an independent processor (raspberry pi) which
will generate an (x,y) coordinates for the object.
Communication
As is true in any society, communication is the fundamental in order for a team to accomplish
any meaningful task. Communication is also foundational in order to orchestrate a team of
intelligent machines. To address this each of my robots is equipped with an XBEE wireless
Transmitter/Receiver with a unique name (Tower1, Seeker Bot etc.) to allow for a dynamic
conversation.
Task Management
This part might seem intuitive but I have found it is absolutely essential to define what
services each robot will provide. Here is an overview of what each team member will
contribute the project.
 Seeker Bot
o Moves inside known perimeter looking for obstacles
o Broadcasts Homing Signal to Sentry Towers when an object is found
 Sentry Towers
o Time stamps the Homing Signal from Seeker Bot
o Sends distance in-between Tower and Seeker Bot to Raspberry Pi.
 Debris Bot
o Sweeps obstacles out of the perimeter
 Raspberry Pi
o Manages all communication on the field
o Processes data from Sentry Towers to locate object within in the perimeter
Here is a link to my project webpage:
https://sites.google.com/site/squadcleansweep/home
Please submit your class report with this one page document. Your class report should
include the following (Max of 10 pages, excluding appendix):
 Table of contents
 List of figures and tables
 A detailed written description of the project design
 Hardware Design
 Any Software Architecture used (include any software code as part of Appendix)
 Testing and Results / Conclusions
 Future Work / Recommendations
 Acknowledgements and/or References
 Appendix: schematics, CAD drawings, Critical IC Bill of Materials, User Manual, etc.