TSA

The Problem Statement

How This Works

Each team is in charge of designing and building a BARNACOAL (Bustling Aquacraft Remotely Navigated to Arm COAL) and a SPECTACOAL (SPectral Emitter of Commands To Arm COAL), acting as a watercraft and controller, respectively. Each team's BARNACOAL and SPECTACOAL are designed to be able to pair with every other team's BARNACOALs and SPECTACOALs. Each BARNACOAL is required to navigate an obstacle course in 5-inch waters to transport COAL (dense rubber balls) into the RECEPTACOAL (RECEiver Passively Taking Any COAL. The SPECTACOALs are each I/O devices that control the features of the BARNACOAL, with an SPDL-supplied XBee radio module for wireless communication.

on your mark...

Waiting for Pairing

The SPECTACOAL and BARNACOAL both implement a class-wide standardized Communication Protocol to ensure consistent communication and reliability across different pairing configurations. While the BARNACOAL and SPECTACOAL are waiting to pair, the commands provided by the SPECTACOAL are ignored by the BARNACOAL, which remains stationary, only drifting as a result of the rippling of the fountain.

get set...

Pairing

A potentiometer on the SPECTACOAL is tuned to the setting of the particular BARNACOAL. Depending on the value of the potentiometer, the address of the corresponding BARNACOAL is stored by the SPECTACOAL. Only when the specific pairing button on the SPECTACOAL is pressed is when it sends a message to the BARNACOAL with 0x02 in the position of the status byte. When the BARNACOAL receives the appropriate pairing message, it sends back 0xFF to the SPECTACOAL, and rotates a servo on the BARNACOAL to indicate that the two devices are paired.

Go!

Driving and Recharging

Once paired, all bets are off. The SPECTACOAL uses two single-axis joysticks and differential thrust to control the forward and side-to-side movement of the BARNACOAL, for 30 seconds. The BARNACOAL's battery life continues to deplete for 30 seconds, after which the BARNACOAL stops responding to SPECTACOAL commands, and a LED on the SPECTACOAL blinks to indicate a need to recharge. In order to recharge, the SPECTACOAL uses an IR sensor to scan a giant barcode, 5 seconds of which will fully recharge the BARNACOAL.

At the finish line

Anchoring and Dispensing

After the BARNACOAL makes its way to the RECEPTACOAL, a button on the SPECTACOAL is pressed to activate a servo attached to an anchor that is used to latch onto the RECEPTACOAL. Once the BARNACOAL is secured in place, a different button is pressed on the SPECTACOAL to activate a different servo motor, which will open a mechanism that will dispense COAL into the RECEPTACOAL. Once the anchor or the dump mechanism is deployed, the subsequent press of the respective button will return the servo to its original position.

letting go

Unpairing

So long as the BARNACOAL and SPECTACOAL are paired, regardless of whether the BARNACOAL is driving, recharging, or stationary due to a lack of charge, the two devices constantly send messages back and forth to one another. However, in the event that one of the two devices is turned off or the distance between the two devices interrupts the communication, a 4 second timeout timer on each device ensures that neither will be stuck, able to be paired with the same or a different device.

Driving motors on land is very different from driving motors under water. Be sure to regularly test your motors with the appropriate weights on your BARNACOAL in the water, as not doing so may result in your BARNACOAL moving very slowly come performance day.

Gem of Wisdom

Be sure to regularly communicate amongst your team regarding expectations and timelines for your project. It may be difficult to align your schedules, but a shared Google Calendar may be very useful to understand when your teammates are OOO.

Gem of Wisdom

Making an entire pinmap for the PIC32 for each of the SPECTACOAL or the BARNACOAL can be very useful in understanding what pins are open to use for different electronics components.

Gem of Wisdom

Especially since the Communications Protocol is pretty robust and complex, the software component of the project can be a bit of an arduous task–make sure that your team is all up-to-date on how the Protocol works and can each collaborate on the SPECTACOAL and BARNACOAL code.

Gem of Wisdom

Never underestimate the power of a to-do list.

Gem of Wisdom

Keep track of the common bugs that you run into when you're working, especially if you're taking time to work on your own. A list of common bugs can help your teammates bypass the long debugging phase of errors that have already been experienced and solved.

Gem of Wisdom

Duct tape and tupperware will be your friends.

Gem of Wisdom

Ideally keep your propellers fully submerged in the water.

Gem of Wisdom

meet sheila.

sheila swims

How This Works

Waiting for Pairing

Pairing

Driving and Recharging

Anchoring and Dispensing

Unpairing

Driving motors on land is very different from driving motors under water. Be sure to regularly test your motors with the appropriate weights on your BARNACOAL in the water, as not doing so may result in your BARNACOAL moving very slowly come performance day.

Be sure to regularly communicate amongst your team regarding expectations and timelines for your project. It may be difficult to align your schedules, but a shared Google Calendar may be very useful to understand when your teammates are OOO.

Making an entire pinmap for the PIC32 for each of the SPECTACOAL or the BARNACOAL can be very useful in understanding what pins are open to use for different electronics components.

Especially since the Communications Protocol is pretty robust and complex, the software component of the project can be a bit of an arduous task–make sure that your team is all up-to-date on how the Protocol works and can each collaborate on the SPECTACOAL and BARNACOAL code.

Never underestimate the power of a to-do list.

Keep track of the common bugs that you run into when you're working, especially if you're taking time to work on your own. A list of common bugs can help your teammates bypass the long debugging phase of errors that have already been experienced and solved.

Duct tape and tupperware will be your friends.

Ideally keep your propellers fully submerged in the water.

Meet The Team

Brenden

Hannah

Nolan

A Special Shoutout to Our Classmates and an Extra Special Shoutout to our Teaching Team (Aramis, Baxter, Nachuan, Trevor, and Karl) for a truly memorable 218 experience.