Past Work in Small Scale Vehicle Controls and Intended Improvements

The 2015-2016 small scale controls team had issues with the barcode sensors during the actual presentation at the Maker Faire. The barcode sensors would allow the switching mechanism to function and allow the cabin to switch directions on the track. The team was able to redesign the whole control system that would enable 10 vehicles to work simultaneously while being controlled by one computer and also use barcode sensors to track the position of each vehicle on the track. As mentioned by the team, the code that was used in the previous team prior to last year's team had to be reworked to fix any bugs that could cause problematic errors in the function of the whole transportation system. There seemed to be issues with the algorithm they implemented that caused them to miss a reading on a barcode and thus lose the tracking position of a vehicle. An exhaustive amount of soldering had to be done by the previous and they suggested that we use printed circuit boards to reduce the amount of soldering that had to be done. It seems that based on the performance from last year's team, the only thing that interfered with making a smooth operation of the controls system was the use of higher quality sensors, products, such as high quality paper, printed circuit boards, and the implementation of a better algorithm.

Upon improving the progress that last year's team made, I intend on working closely with my team to redesign the controls system to find a better way to track and control various vehicles at once through the use of better sensors and a simple algorithm. If we do decide to use the barcode idea, we would need to make major improvements by rewriting the algorithm, by making sure that the barcode readings will not be missed, and by using better sensors and barcode prints. Depending on how big the cabins will be, we would have to redesign the hardware as deemed fit that would be implemented inside the cabin. This would require using compact electronics and using limited electronics to implement the whole controls and tracking system. Their total cost for the controls system was $240. We would need to match that cost, reduce that cost, or justify the reasons why we decided to increase the cost due to the use of sophisticated electronics or the use of better but costly sensors. I intend on making the system more autonomous and robust in terms of making the vehicles switch directions/lanes on the track without user input.