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Sunday, November 16, 2014

High Level System Diagram

What is a System Diagram? 

According to Kossiakoff and Sweet (2011):
"System Context Diagrams... represent all external entities that may interact with a system... Such a diagram pictures the system at the center, with no details of its interior structure, surrounded by all its interacting systems, environments and activities. The objective of the system context diagram is to focus attention on external factors and events that should be considered in developing a complete set of systems requirements and constraints."

Considering the definition above, we decided to develop our system diagram with slightly more context and actually provide the connecting wires, components, etc. 

Our System Diagram

System Diagram Explanation

RC Servo Motors

The Robot's main functionality will be dependent on two Servo motors to actuate the lever arm and pick up the disk at the Enemy Castle Beacon. Since the design requires two servos to be operated simultaneously, meaning that one servo will have to be placed adjacent to the other servo, and actuated in the opposite direction at the exact same time. To prevent any issues, I decided to use two 555 timers in Monostable Mode and calculate the exact timing by tuning the resistor and capacitor in series, meaning that for some time t:    t = 1.1 * R * C.

Bump Sensors

Our plan is to utilize 6-8 bump sensors on each side of the robot. During the openField operation of the robot (i.e. the robot is driving around the field openly, the ultrasonic proximity sensor feedback can be utilized as another "bump sensor".

Track Wire Detector

The track wire sensor will only be used in two locations to orient the robot - the home castle and the enemy castle. 

Ultrasonic Distance Sensor

The ultrasonic distance sensor performs a 'sweep' at the start of the robot's operation to look for an opening (a way out of each castle).

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