College Senior Project
Project Topic: A Self-Motivating Vehicle, automatically navigated and driven by a Global Positioning System unit and a digital compass modules controlled by microprocessors. The objectives is to create a system that can self-navigate and drive a vehicle to the destination given by the user.
Goals and Objectives
To construct a self-motivating vehicle capable of finding its way to the destination specified by user.
To find the optimal path using least processing time possible.
To efficiently utilize the limited system resources, available technologies and time to fulfill the first objective.
Introduction
The objective of this project is to build a vehicle that can self-motivate and find its own path according to the destination set by the user. The vehicle will be able to calculate its path and navigate to its destination by itself. In navigation, when we want to travel from our current location and reach our destination correctly we must be able to verify our current position first. Afterwards, we must know how to travel from our current position to our destination by searching through some data, a map or a direction. It‘s the same in vehicle self-navigation. We will need a source of information to give the vehicle’s current position and also a map database which is in the same format or is compatible in terms of calculation for the vehicle to plot its route to the destination given. In order to complete such task, the vehicle must be equipped with some intelligence with access to the map database and perform routing algorithms in order to verify its current location and plot its route to the destination. In addition, for the vehicle to be useful, it must choose the optimal path to the destination. To achieve this, the map database must provide data on the distance of each path. As a result if there are many possible routes the vehicle can choose the optimal one.
The areas that we covered are divided into three main parts.
Global Positioning System Unit: This will verify the vehicle’s current location and assist in navigating the vehicle.
Mechanical Structure and Electronics: The vehicle itself must be equipped with motors to maneuver and a controller unit must be present to control it.
Mapping database and Routing Algorithms: A map database will assist the microcontroller in verifying the location and also act as a routing reference