Executive Summary Lab 2

Sean Finnessy, Dalton Rowell, Jiashou Tong, Di Wu AEV Lab 2

Table L- Prof. Gilat, GTA Noah Lemire January 27, 2015

Executive Summary

The purpose of this lab is to make the students familiar with software and hardware of AEV automatic control system and be able to write basic code to control the AEV and resolve errors. Programming technique was used in this lab to control the behavior of the AEV by controlling the propellers. This part of knowledge is fundamental and important in all engineering fields nowadays with the prosperity and prospect in interdiscipline between computer science and engineering.

During the lab period, it was found that the AEV worked as commanded by the arduino program. All the commands that control the power output of AEV do not control the direction as they only tell the motors how much power output to give out. Thus, the direction commands and power commands should be used together to ensure complete control of the AEV. This combination of commands will also allow the requirements of the lab to be met. For this lab the AEV was not fully constructed, however, the motor and propellers were connected and functioned as instructed in the code. This code was written on the computer and via the arduino instructed the motors how to behave.

During first trial run, it was discovered that an entire line of code was missing and off put the motors resulting in incorrect behavior. The code was changed for the second trial run and the motors ended up running correctly. When performing the first test it was discovered that the propellers were put on backwards (dull side facing toward electric motor casing) and very loosely. This could have resulted in the propellors flying off and producing a failed trial run. This error was corrected in the second trial run. It was discovered that a servo contained in the AEV kit, which may provide additional function, had not been used in this lab, resolving in possible limitation. Upon building the final AEV, many test runs should be taken in advance to testing day to ensure that the code written will correctly match the requirements. This will allow time for the correct code to be written.

Students in this lab learn to write basic code in this coding software. Also, the process of linking the software with arduino physically to load the code, so as to control the AEV, was completed. Upon reflecting on how the motors functioned under the code it is seen that the motors follow the code exactly with no lag. This is important because in order to get the AEV to perform the certain task it needs to do, the code must be written precisely to what is needed. This means that any part of the code that would set off the AEV from its needed timed path would end up crumbling the rest of the checkpoints and failing to meet the requirements.

Appendix

Figure 1: Arduino Programming Basics Arduino Code for Group L

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