SENSTITIVE SAM WALKS THE LINE

SYNOPSIS
ON

MAJOR PROJECT

SUBMITTED BY

Introduction to the Project:

Sensitive Sam is a motorized cart. You stick black electrical tape on the floor to create a little path or track for Sam, and Sam uses his senses to follow the tape around corners and in interesting loops. He has also a little horn you can blow (to warn that hes coming).

Project overview:
Sam who, Have three wheels: This design makes the cart stable. If you use four wheels, you need to include a suspension mechanism to ensure that all wheels stay in contact with the floor at all the times. We use one unpowered wheel in front and two independently powered in back. This way, if the motor for one of the wheels in back is shut off, the cart turns in the direction of the motor that was shut off (left or right). Sports two eyes: these eyes help Sam figure out where to go. Sams eyes phototransistors pointed at the floor sense the infrared (IR) light that is sent out by IR LEDs and then reflected by the floor. By laying down a track of black electrical tape on the floor, you can create an area that reflects less of the IR light. Responds to the remote control: This remote uses radio waves to send its commands to Sensitive Sam. You can set the switches on the remote control to tell Sam to turn on/off, slow down or speed up, or honk the horn. When you flip a switch and press the transmit button, that effect kicks in.

Transmitter section:

Transmitter section consists of following components: The transmitter module(TWS-434 RF) sends out a radio signal at 433.9MHz thats modulated with the code provided by the encoder. VR1 (LM7805): Voltage regulator that supplies steady 5 V. IC1(Holtek HT12E): This is an encoder. The radio signal that the remote control sends out is modulated, depending upon how you have the switches set, by this encoding IC. R1 (1 mega ohm): This is a resistor that sets the frequency of an oscillator thats internal to the encoder. The signal from this oscillator is required to generate the encoded signal. S5: on/off switch Four SPST toggle switches (S1, S2, S3, and S4). SPST normally open (NO) momentary push button switch (S4). 400 Contact bread board. One 4 AA battery pack with snap connector. Five 2-pin terminal blocks. An assortment of different lengths of prestripped, short 22AWG wire.

Receiver section:
Receiver section consists of following components: The receiver module (RWS- 434 RF) separates the coded signal sent by the transmitter from the 433.9MHz carrier wave. The output of the receiver module at Pin 2 is the decoded signal. VR1 (7805): Voltage regulator that supplies steady 5 V. S1: on/off switch for the circuit. IC1 (Holtek HT12D): This decodes the signal sent by the transmitter. IC2 (LM555N-1): An LM555 timer that generates a square wave.

IC3 (L293D H-Bridge): this is an H-Bridge motor controller. Five 2N3904 transistors (Q1 - Q5) 6 volt buzzer Four 1 amp or greater solid state relays, DPDT or SPDT Two DC gear GM2 each with a 2 5/8 wheel or equivalent. Two metal bracelets used as motor mounts. One 1 swiveling castor. Six 0.1 microfarad ceramic capacitors (C1, C3, C6, C7, C9, C11). Six 10 microfarad electrolytic capacitors (C2, C4, C5, C8, C10, C12). 51 kohm resistor (R1). Three 10kohm resistors (R3, R5, R7). Two 150 ohm resistors (R4, R6). Two 830- contact breadboards. Two Fairchild QRB1134 sensors. Three 4 AA battery packs with snap connectors. An assortment of different lengths of prestripped, short 22AWG wire.

HOW IT WORKS: 1) Place black electricians tape on a reflective floor. 2) Place Sam on the track with the sensors on either side of the tape. 3) Put batteries in Sam and the remote control flip the on/off switches both to ON. 4) Flip the start/stop switch to start and press the transmit button on the remote control to get Sam moving. 5) Flip either the speed or horn switch on the remote control and then press the transmit button to activate either effect.

6) To stop Sam, flip the start/stop switch to stop and press the transmit button. 7) We set up the circuit so that when Sams eyes hover over reflective floor, the motors turn. If one eye is over the black tape or other unreflective surface- eg where the bend comes in the tape track- the motor connected to that eye shuts off, causing the cart to turn and follow the tape. When the eye is back over the reflective floor, the motor turns back on, and the cart goes in the straight line again.