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IOT Smart Car aka MBED Based Remote Temperature Sensor¶

Introduction¶

This project is about demonstrating an IOT application using MBED Application board LPC1768. In this project a toy car has been hacked for demonstrating a remote sensor. According to Oxford Dictionary definition of a "Robot" is a machine capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically, especially one programmable by a computer. This toy car according to the definition of a robot does fall in the category of being a robot therefore in the next sections the car will be refereed with terminologies as "Robot Car" or "Robot".

Goal¶

The goal of the project is to make a Robot that:

Can act as a Smart remote sensor by updating sensor data via Ethernet and Wifely Interface.
Can be controlled or accessed from a remote position using various interfaces.

Functionality:¶

As this project is done for educational purpose rather than for commercial product therefore our team tried to use all bits and pieces of what we have learnt in the class to implement in this project. For clear vision the functionality of the Robot is broken down into different modes(a manner of acting or doing). The modes of the Robot are as follows:

Mode1: Manual Mode - |PS2 + Xively + Wifely|:
This is the manual mode in which the car is controlled manually via a PS2 controller. In this mode the temperature sensed is transmitted on the xively via Wifly.
Mode 2: Semi-Auto- |Telnet + Xively + Ethernet|:
In semi automatic mode, the control is remote. The car is controlled by telnetting to the mbed via ethernet. In this mode the distance travelled by the car gets limited due to the use of ethernet cable.
Mode 3: Automatic- |Xively + Wifely+Obstacle Avoidance|:
In this mode the car moves automatically all over avoiding the obstacles it comes across. It also senses the temperature and sends it to the xively page via wifly. The mbed code used for this is same as in mode 1, only difference being the arduino is programmed for obstacle avoidance.

Components¶

Following components are used for the project:

Arduino- RoMeo:
RoMeo is an All-in-One Arduino compatible microcontroller especially designed for robotics applications from DFRobot. (For more Info: http://www.dfrobot.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=656#.U5Vh4PldVGk).
Mbed (LPC1768):
For more Info https://mbed.org/platforms/mbed-LPC1768/
Application Board:
For more info: https://mbed.org/cookbook/mbed-application-board
Motor Driver:
MD30C is the successor of MD30B which is designed to drive medium to high power brushed DC motor with current capacity up to 80A peak and 30A continuously.
Jumper Wires:
Servo Motor:
Distance Sensor:
This is the major component used in the obstacle detection. The outpur voltage of this sensor changes depending upon the distance of the obstacle from it. This voltage is then used in arduino software to avoid the obstacles.