Device Functioning

Transmission
The device consists of three transmitters which are placed in an apron, which is controlled by a microcontroller and a miniature battery to power it. Here the microcontroller ATMEGA8 is used to generate 38khz pulse signal which is then supplied to the IR LED transmitters. So the blinking rate of three IR LEDS is 38khz. Basically here the IR LEDs emit IR signal of carrier frequency 38khz. But the main objective here is to differentiate the three IR signals. That is achieved by changing the on/off time. That is nothing but Pulse Width Modulation. Though the carrier frequency is 38khz the on time or the off time is varied for each IR LED which will be pre programmed in the microcontroller. Thus we send three unique 38khz IR signal which are distinguished by their pulse width. Now these three IR transmitters are placed in three different places in apron. That is one at backside of apron, another at the left shoulder and the last one at the right shoulder. This is because IR is limited to straight path transmission and taking advantage of that the body movement of the worker is tracked. Here the entire transmitter part is powered by a 9V rechargeable miniature battery which will be placed in the apron.

Receiver

The receiver part is placed in the carriage. This consists of TSOP 1738 IR receiver, HCSRC4 ultrasound distance measurer, IR obstacle detector, Arduino ATMEGA8A microcontroller and H-bridge power splitter board. TSOP1738 is a 38khz IR receiver which will receive three 38khz pulse width modulated IR signal from the transmitter. The positioning of the three IR transmitters in the apron is such that at a time only one signal is received. That is when the worker is moving forward only back IR signal is received. When he turns right, back IR signal is not received since IR is limited to straight path transmission. Now only right IR signal is received. Likewise when he turns left only left IR signal is received. So based upon this condition the carriage is programmed to move. HC-SRC4 is a 4 pin ultrasound distance measurer which is used to find the distance between the carriage and the worker. That is when the worker turns right , we receive right IR signal now the microcontroller is programmed such that it first calculates the distance between the carriage and the worker, now the available distance is converted to number of steps that is required to rotate the stepper motor so as to cover the distance till the worker by the carriage and then turns right. The same process repeats when the left IR signal is received, that is when the worker turns left. Thus three unique signals received are programmed based on conditions that makes the carriage to follow the worker. So three unique IR signals received direct the carriage in three orthogonal directions. When the back IR signal is received the microcontroller is programmed such that carriage moves forward. Here the condition is real time that is every millisecond as the signal is received the stepper motor is rotated in steps. So as the signal is blocked or not received the carriage stops. IR obstacle detector is used to detect the obstacles between the carriage and worker. This mainly targets low level obstacles. If an intruder or obstacle of certain height comes in between carriage and worker the IR signal will be blocked and the carriage halts but in case the height of the obstacle is not enough to block the IR signal, at this case IR obstacle detector comes into picture. This has the master control in the device operation, that is if the output of the obstacle detector is high (obstacle is detected ) then the carriage does not move

even it receives any of the IR signal. So by this obstacle of any low height can be detected and collisions can be avoided.