splitting a bill or Send Money to family overseas.
Things to work on
We need to figure out a way for the front of the car to turn. Since we made our car larger, it's a little more complicated. The front of the car should be strong enough to hold a weight of the car (as strong as possible).
We need to put up new pictures of the car on the wiki
Explain how we designed it to make it go as fast as possible
Explain how the front of the car turns
Remind Edward Baafi to order the ultrasonic sensor for the Smart Car
Fix the end of the our sensors so that they plug into the gogo board
Program!
sensor2 should make the car go forward, sensor3 backwards, sensor4 turn right,
sensor5 turn left.
Our OLD model of the Smart Car
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!!!!!!!!!OUR NEW MODEL!!!!!!!!
Ideas
Our problem that we want to solve is car accidents.Our plans to show the problem is to make a house with the laser cutter and have a car crash into it. To solve the problem, we will make a house with a sensor strip on the house so when the car gets near the house, the car will sense it and slow down to a stop. Our other plan for this project is to make driving more safe by having buses linked to electrical wires so that it can only run on a certain speed so it can't go any faster than the limit. By combining different modules to our projects we can make different solutions. [Change of plans.]
*texting on the phone while driving
*eatting while driving
*putting make-up while driving
What We Found On Our Research Of Car Accidents
*Four people involved in car accidents die every hour
*Main cause of accidents is reckless driving, negligent driving, and drunk driving.
*98% of reported accidents involve a single distracted driver
*Rubbernecking is the single number one distraction
*Driver fatigue - looking at scenery or landmarks
*Child or people distractions
*Adjusting radio/iPod
*Using cell phones
*Traffic delays
*cell phone use is the main reason for higher car accidents
*In urban areas, the main car accidents are caused my cell phones and rubbernecking.
*In rural areas, driver fatigue and animals are the main reason for accidents.
*laws limiting cell phones prevent car accidents
*day dreaming
*Behavior
What We Came Up With
*When someone looks to the side, something senses it and says something like "keep your eyes on the road."
*Limit the speeds in cars to prevent reckless/aggressive driving.
*auto-pilot sensors
*cars that takes control of cell phones, so when you get a phone call, you won't have to reach for the phone.
*Use cameras to detect cars in the surrounding and not let you turn if detected.
*something in the car to sense stillness.
*Use trolley systems to power cars
New Plans
Our current plans for this project is to use a GoGo Board to program a Pico car. We'll be using the infrared sensor to sense the distance, so the car will slow down based on the closeness of the car ahead.
What we have already done.
We made modules of the buses to start with. For our other plans, we will continue on working on them. [Change of plans.]
We did research on the different types of car accidents there are and decided to work on the aggressive/reckless driving problem. We built a car with the Pico kit and we're going to program the car with the GoGo Board. When the GoGo Board detects that the car in front is getting close, the GoGo Board would make the car slow down, so people won't get into accidents. The GoGo Board would prevent the car from getting too close to the one ahead.
Our Data
| Vinyl | ||
| Colors | Distance to detect change | Distance to detect closeness |
| red | 3 inches | 1 inch |
| Black | 1 inch | when it touches |
| Reflective Red | 27 inches | 3 inches |
| Green | 1.5 inch | 1/4 inch |
| Yellow | 2 inches | 3/4 inch |
| White | 2 inches | 1/2 inch |
| Gold | 3 inches | 1/2 inch |
| Lego | ||
| Colors | Distance to detect change | Distance to detect closeness |
| Green | 2 inches | 1/2 inch |
| Orange | 3 inches | 1/2 inch |
| Blue | 2 inches | 1/2 inch |
| Grey | 1.5 inch | 1/4 inch |
| Red | 2 inches | 1/2 inch |
| Acrylic | ||
| Colors | Distance to detect change | Distance to detect closeness |
| Pink | 2 inches | 1/4 inch |
We used different colors of the same material to experiment with the different changes of distance in a certain color of the material. Each material changes its detection at different distances.
For the reflective red piece of vinyl, we held up a ruler, placed the infrared sensor at the 24 inch mark and found the sensor value and distance for red vinyl at different ranges.
| Distance Apart (inches) | Infrared Sensor Value |
| 11.5 | 520 |
| 11 | 730 |
| 10 | 650 |
| 9.5 | 480 |
| 8 | 290 |
| 6 | 120 |
7-22-08: Today we tested our program and found that our hands were at a close distance from the infrared sensor before it showed any change. Also, we realized that it's better to keep the car at a certain distance instead of slow it down. So, we decided to use different colored vinyls to see which peice of vinyl, based on material and color, would show more change from a farther distance.
7/23/08: Today We Tried To make the program on the go go board to make the motor stop when it reaches a certain distance. We also Tried to fit the go go board on the car. We tested it a couple times. Using the infrared Sensor To Slow Down The Car when It Reaches A certain point, And it actually worked when we tried. But it took us a while and a couple tries.
7-24-08: Today we changed the design of the car so that it can turn right and left. Later, we created a program to make the car go forward, backward, left, and right.
7-28-08: Today we worked on a scratch program for our project. We are thinking about turning it into a commercial for the software that our car runs on. It is an animation of our car stopping when it is a certain distance away from a car behind it. Then the car turns to the side and moves forward to continue driving away. A problem that we are facing is how to make the car move forward after it has stopped a safe distance away from the car.
Now, we're working on a new model for our car. We are trying to make it bigger and we are also trying to make it be able to turn left and right while running on two motors. Later, we will write a new program for the car.
8/7/08
today we are programing the car for our presentation. we are going to practice for our real presentation on friday. But today we all worked on pieces of the car.nora,jasmine, and Jenny worked on programing. Jovanie and carlie worked on tmaking the sensors.
8/12/08
We came up with ideas of how we can improve on the car and make it work better than it already is. We made a control for the car with fablab, but realized that it's not how we want it, so we took it apart in the end.
8/13/08
Today we soldered wires onto an ethernet cable, so we can extend the wire and make it look neater instead of having many wires stick out, there will be only a few.
7/31/08
Ideas that We Came Up With:
To help the car turn
-we could make a track for the car to run on and write a program for the car so that it can sense where the line is and only work on that line
-we could also have 2 cars running on the track and make something that makes sure the 2 cars don't go near each other (probably won't do this one)
-we could also make the car skid steer by placing the wheels in a certain place
Research on Skid Loaders/Skid Steer__
-four wheel drive
-left side drive wheels are independent from the right side drive wheels
-wheel speed and the direction of the rotation of the wheels determine the direction the vehicle will turn
-very maneuverable
Our current program. (Still working on it)
Our new WORKING program.
to run
forever
[
if (sensor2 = 0) and (sensor5 >900)
[
if sensor1 > 970
ifelse sensor1 < 700
if sensor1 < 250
]
if (sensor2 = 0) and (sensor5=0)
if (sensor2 > 900) and (sensor5 >900)
if (sensor2 >900) and (sensor5 =0)
if (sensor3 = 0) and (sensor4 >900)
if (sensor3 = 0) and (sensor4=0)
if (sensor3 > 900) and (sensor4 >900)
if (sensor3 >900) and (sensor4 =0)
]
end
8/12/08
Today we worked on making a new remote control for our leggo car. The first one we make will not be wireless and the second one we make will be wireless. We finished making the structure for the remote control out of cardboard and the next thing we will work on is making buttons for the car and getting wires for the remote to connect it to the car. We're also to place copper pieces on the remote control and on another piece of cardboard so that when they tough, the remote control will work.
Explanation of How the Front of the Car Turns: (New Picture of the Car Coming Soon)
We used an axel and gears to make the front of the car turn. The bridge between the turning part of the car, and the base for the car was to weak, so we had to overlap the leggos like how bridges are built to reinforce the connection. After we built the front of the car (the part that turns) we
____
the car can turn left and right and go forward and still has the program to slow down at a certin distances.
next step
make a real controler
build a base in fablab
make a new sensor
gimp to design car body
use scratch for simulating car movement
Blog site and google document
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcsmgp5_0c6v4zjg8
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