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    Summer Training Report  1

    College of Computer Sciences and Engineering

    Computer Engineering Department

    Summer Training Report - Term 073

    Designing and Implementing Remotely Controlled Vehicle for Security Applications

    KFUPM - Research Institute(Center of Communications and Computer Research)

    Prepared by:

    Hamad Ali Hamad Al-Hajri

    ID# 206501

    Advisor: Mr. Hazem Selmi

    Coordinator: Dr. Basem Al-Madani

    < September - 2008 >

    Abstract

     This report describes the summer training experience in the Center of

    Communications and Computer Research at KFUPM - Research Institute. I worked in

    USAD 1 project with a team of two students to design the controlling unit that is

    installed on a four wheels motorbike and a control station to send the user commands

    to the Robotic Warrior. In addition, we setup a wireless network to connect the control

    station with the controlling unit and also we designed the required software that is

    needed for the digital devices to work properly. In this report I describe all the

    components of the project and work done on them. Also, I demonstrate some of the

    software that I develop in this project.

    Remotely Controlled Vehicle for Security Applications "USAD 1" Hamad Al-Hajri

    http://www.kfupm.edu.sa/

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     Table of Contents

    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS …………………………………………………………………….……….. 4

    INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………………….……….……….. 4

    1.  WORK PLACE ……….….………….………………………………………………………… 5

    2.  ACCOMPLISHED WORK ……………………………………………………….…………... 6

    2.1 The Robotic Warrior System …………………………………………………………. 8

    a)  Four Wheels Motorbike …………………………………………...… 8

    b)  The Server PC …………….….………………………………………. 9

    c) 

    Wireless Router …………….…………….…………………………. 10

    d)  Controlling Unit ………………….…….….…………….….……..… 11

    i)  Microcontrollers' Board ……………………………………… 12

    ii)  H-Bridge ………………………………………………………… 14

    iii)  Relays Board …………………………………………………… 14

    e)  Actuators …………….………………………………….……………. 16

    f) 

    Power suppliers ……………………………..….…………..………… 17

    g)  Vision devices .……………………………………………..………… 17

    2.2 The Control Station …………………………………………………………………… 18

    a)  Client PC …………………………………..………………………… 18

    b)  J oystick ……………………………………………………………….. 19

    c)  Steering Wheel ……………………………………………………… 19

    3. 

    PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS ………………………………………………………...…… 20

    CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………………………………………… 21

    REFERENCES ………………………………………………………………………………………… 23

    APPENDIXES ………………………………………………………………………………………… 24

    A.  Progress Report 1 ……….…………………….…………………………………………… 24

    B.  Progress Report 2 ….………………………………………………………………….…… 25

    C. Progress Report 3 …………………….……………………….…………………………… 26

    CERTIFICATE ………………………………………………………………………………………… 27

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    List of Figures

    Figure 1: The project idea …………..…………………………………….………………… 6

    Figure 2: The robotic warrior system …………………………………….………………… 8

    Figure 3: Four wheels motorbike …………………………………………………………… 8

    Figure 4: Server PC …………………………………………………………………………… 9

    Figure 5: Server program ……………………………………………………………………. 9

    Figure 6: Wireless router ……………………………………………………………………… 10

    Figure 7: Controlling unit ……………..……………………………………………………… 11

    Figure 8: Microcontrollers' board ……….…………….…………………………………… 12Figure 9: Microcontrollers' board ……….…………….…………………………………… 12

    Figure 10: Microcontrollers' circuit diagram …….….…………………………………… 13

    Figure 11: H-Bridge …………………………………………………………………………… 14

    Figure 12: Relays board ………………….…………………….…………………………… 14

    Figure 13: Controlling unit circuit diagram ……………………………………………… 15

    Figure 14: Actuators – acceleration and break …….….……………………………… 16

    Figure 15: Actuators – steering motor …………………………………………………… 16

    Figure 16: Actuators – camera …………………………………………………………… 16

    Figure 17: Actuators – camera …………………………………………………………… 16

    Figure 18: Power supplies …………………………….………….………………………… 17

    Figure 19: Vision devices …………………………………………………………………… 17

    Figure 20: Client program ……………………….……………….………………………… 18

    Figure 21: Camera program …………………………….………………………………… 18

    Figure 22: J oystick …………………………………………………………………………… 19

    Figure 23: Steering wheel …………………….……………………………….…………… 19

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    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

     The project team wishes to acknowledge the unlimited support of the USAD 1

    project supervisors, Dr. Mansour Al-Dajani, Dr. Moustafa ElShafiai and Dr. Abdul-Hafid

    Bouharaoua. The team would also like to thank faculty who work previously in this

    project, or who attend the final demo of the project. The project team members also

    apprec iate each other and their fervor during this projec t.

    INTRODUCTION

    In this report I will explain my role in designing and implementing remotely

    controlled vehicle for security applications. I worked in small team of me and Mr.

    Mohammed Al-Marouf who is a student in System Engineering Department at KFUPM.

    We worked in the Center of Communications and Computer Research (CCCR) at

    KFUPM - Research Institute. We started our work in the 5th of J uly 2008 and finished the

    summer training after eight weeks in the 27th of august 2008.

    In our summer training, we worked under the supervision of Dr. Mansour Al-Dajani,

    who is the director of the center in which we worked. In addition, Dr. Moustafa

    ElShafiai and Dr. Abdul-Hafid Bouharaoua advised, directed and monitor us through

    whole the training period; and they attended our final demo of the USAD 1 project in

    25th of august 2008.

    In the training period we designed and solved many systems. The main problems

    and systems that we solved and designed are:

    • 

    User interface that was installed in the control station (c lient PC ) to send the user

    commands to the vehicle.

    •  Commands (receiver/sender) software that was installed in the server PC to

    receive the commands wirelessly from the control station PC and send them to the

    control unit through serial connection.

    •   The hardware of the control circuit that was set in the vehicle besides software that

    was installed in the main part of the control circuit which is a PIC microcontroller.

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     Those are the main systems that we designed. However, we designed and

    prepared some other systems such vision system and power supplying system.

    1. WORK PLACE

     The summer training program was at KFUPM and specifically at the Center of

    Communications and Computer Research (CCCR) - Research Institute. The research

    institute (RI) plays an important role in the field of research and development at

    KFUPM. The RI's projects benefit both the kingdom's private and public sectors. At the

    same time, it has responded effectively to provide new research and technical

    services as the needs have arisen. The RI is divided into six main centers as the

    following:

    •  Center of Communications & Computer Research (CCCR).

    •  Center of Economics & Management (CEMS).

    •  Center of Environment & Water (CEW).

    •  Center of Engineering Research (CER).

    •  Center of Petroleum & Minerals (CPM).

    •  Center of Refining & Petrochemicals (CRP).

     The RI's clients are more than 250 clients during the few past years in both fields:

    projects and laboratories services. Those clients include big names of international and

    local companies and organizations such as Petroleum Energy Center (PEC) - Japan,

     J ohns Hopkins University - USA, Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) - KSA,

    Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) - KSA, and others.

     The Center of Communications & Computer Research (CCCR) which the summer

    training program was in it introduces many services to companies and organizations

    such as consultations, training and performing projects in communication and

    computer areas. The center also contains many labs such as:

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    •  Communications & Signal Processing Laboratory (CSPL).

    •  Computer Networking and Information Security Laboratory (CNISL).

    •  Database & Web Applications Laboratory (DWAL).

    • 

    Smart Systems Laboratory (SSL), that "USAD 1" projec t is done in it.

    •  E-Business Consultation and Training Unit (eBU).

    2. ACCOMPLISHED WORK

    When we start working in the smart systems laboratory at Center of

    Communications and C omputer Research, we was asked to finish all required things

    that are needed for the USAD 1 project to work properly; by designing and

    implementing and testing any software and hardware that required for the project. In

    addition we were responsible to coordinate the work of other departments on some

    parts of the project.

     The USAD 1 project is divided into two main systems. We can name first system as

    the robotic warrior system (the vehicle), and the second system as the control station.

     The main components of the robotic warrior system is a four wheels motorbike, PC

    works as server, wireless router, microcontroller circuit, actuators and power suppliers.

    For the control station, the main components are PC works as client, steering wheel

    with its pedals and joystick. The following figure will illustrate the idea of the project:

    Fi ure 1: The ro ect idea

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     The purpose of this project is to perform a dangers ac tions or operations by this

    vehicle instead of humans. These actions can be (for example) fighting enemies by

    weapon, destroying bombs, or any kind of security application. USAD 1 project (in its

    current version) is designed to hold and use a weapon and for that we sometimes

    called the vehicle with a robotic warrior.

    As I mentioned before, I worked in a small team of me and Mr. Mohammed Al-

    Marouf. We worked together in all jobs required for the project. However, there were

    some parts that done mostly by me and other by him. The software of the

    microcontroller and the hardware that related to it were the parts that Mr.

    Mohammed Al-Marouf concentrated on, while I concentrated more on installing thewireless connection and creating software to make a wireless connect between the

    two main systems of USAD 1 project. The following list includes all tasks and all activities

    that I did in this project:

    •  Fixing the project components on the bottom wood plate such as PICmicrocontrollers, H-Bridge, Relays board and fans.

    •  Making connections between those components.

    •   Testing all the connections (wires and cables).

    •  Fixing the wireless router and the server PC parts on the upper wood plate.

    •  Installing and configuring the wireless components such as the wirelessnetwork adapter and the wireless router.

    •   Testing all the connections.

    •  Writing a program that deal direc tly with the PIC microcontroller throughserial cable (visual basic language).

    •  Writing programs to make a wireless connection between the client PC andthe server PC (visual basic language).

    •  Modifying the code of those programs, so that the joystick and the steeringwheel can be used now to perform actions.

    •  Installing and configuring the cameras program.

    •  Fixing the power supplies system, cameras and the DC to AC converter.

    • 

     Testing the project, again.

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    In the following sections I will give detailed descriptions and explanations about

    each part of the main systems of the USAD 1 project and the work done on it.

    2.1 The Robotic Warrior System 

     This part of the USAD 1 project is much bigger and more complicated than the

    other, figure 2. The main objective of our work in this

    project is to remotely control all functions of this system

    through wireless medium. The most important functions of

    that system are the ability of carrying some kind of

    weapon with good aiming to the targets, the ability to

    move with high maneuverability and the ability to give a

    good vision for the surrounding environment to the

    controller. To this functions and achieving the project

    objectives we built this system with the following

    components.

    a) 

    Four 

    Wheels 

    Motorbike 

     The Robotic Warrior System was built on a four wheel motorbike, figure 3, to

    facilitate its movement. The objective of using this kind of vehicle is to give the

    system a high maneuverability. Also this

    vehicle is capable to be derived on

    ordinary or rugged ways. In addition, its

    speed, size, power and durability make it

    more suitable for our project than the other

    choices. However, using this motorbike is not

    better than design a special vehicle that

    Fi ure 3: Four wheels motorbikesatisfies all the requirement of this project;

    but the long time, much of effort and the high cost that needed to design and

    build such vehicle make this choice undesirable.

    Figure 2: The robotic warrior system

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    ri

    9

    The Work Done on This Motorbike: This motorbike was sent to the mechanical

    workshop to change and add some parts that facilitate controlling the motor and

    make fixing the electronic components possible. First thing they take out the seat

    and attach a metal plate. Then they fix two sticks to carry the vision devices and

    the w

    b) 

    Server 

    PC 

    portant

    parts are fixed such as motherboard, power

    isk drive and CD – Rom drive

    while

    en the operating system

    (windo

    eapon. Also they put carrier for the two servo motors that are responsible for

    holding and releasing the break and accelerator pedals; and connecting these

    pedals to the servo motors by metallic wires. In addition they set a holder for

    steering motor and place gear disk under the steering wheel to connect the

    steering wheel with the steering motor.

     The server PC is disassembled and then fixed on the upper wood plate in the

    motorbike as it appears in figure 4. Im

    supply, hard d

    some parts are ignored to save a space

    on the wood plate such as floppy disk drive.

     This PC is connected to the wireless router by

    an Ethernet cable and also connected to the

    PIC microcontroller by a serial cable through

    COM1 port.

     The server/client programs are written by v

    Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0. The server

    program works automatically in the

    server PC wh

    isual basic language and by using

    Figure 4: Server PC

    ws) starts. This program keeps

    listening until it receives a connection

    request from the c lient PC (figure 5).

    After the server program accepts this

    Figure 5: Server program

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    Figure 6: Wireless router

    on"

    which

     server

    PC. Th

    c)  Wireless Router 

    outer (SpeedTouch 585 v6) figure 6, as mention before is

    conne

    ed by "WPA-PSK" to make this

    request, the c lient PC can now sends commands to the server PC and the server

    PC itself receives those commands, transfers them to COM1 port to the PIC

    microcontroller that executes those commands.

    By knowing the IP address of the server PC, "Remote Desktop Connecti

     is a program under Windows operating system, can be used to access the

    server PC wirelessly from the c lient PC. This program is very helpful feature to make

    any necessary corrections of problems that may happen in the server PC.

     The program that is dealing with videos transmission is installed in the

    is program is called "CamGuard Security System" and its version is 4.0.12.133.

    It is required to be installed only on the server PC, because the user can see the

    videos in the c lient PC without installing this program again in the client PC.

     The wireless r

    cted to the server PC by an Ethernet

    cable and it has the following static IP address:

    192.168.1.64. The power cable of the router is

    connected to the DC to AC converter. The

    wireless standard of this router is IEEE 802.11 (g)

    which works in the 2.4 GHz band with a

    maximum bit rate of 54 Mbit/s and an

    approximately maximum coverage range of 38

    meters (Indoor). The wireless network is encryptnetwork more secure. WPA is a more powerful security technology for WiFi

    networks than Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP). It provides strong data protection

    by using encryption as well as strong access controls and user authentication. WPA

    utilizes 128-bit encryption keys and dynamic session keys to ensure your wireless

    network's privacy and enterprise security. There are two basic forms of WPA: WPA

    Enterprise and WPA Personal (WPA-PSK). WPA-PSK is basically an authentication

    mechanism in which users provide some form of credentials to verify that they

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    should be allowed access to a network. This requires a single password entered

    into each WLAN node (wireless routers for example). As long as the passwords

    match, a client will be granted access to a WLAN. WEP is sometimes inaccurately

    referred to as Wireless Encryption Protocol. The "SpeedTouch" management

    interface is reachable by two ways: either by the Internet Explorer or by using the

    telnet through command prompt. This management interface enables the user to

    configure and control many features and many properties of the wireless router.

    Figure 7: Controlling unit

    d) 

    Controlling 

    Unit 

    unit in the Robotic Warrior System is responsible to recognize

    the us

      is

    comp

    rs for conn nents.

     The controlling

    er command then carry out them by

    sending the suitable signal to the various

    actuators of the Robotic Warrior System.

    Moreover, this unit must monitor the system

    performance and take the appropriate

    action in some specific cases like losing the

    connec tion with the control station.

     The controlling unit, figure 7,

    osed of microcontrollers' board, H-

    bridge, relays board and electrical connecto

     The microcontroller is the intelligent part in this unit. It is responsible to recognize the

    received command and send a various signals to the right actuators. Moreover, it

    is the intelligent unit that has to take the appropriate action once an emergency

    case occurs. The H-bridge controls the power delivered to the steering motor by a

    PWM signal that is generated from the microcontroller. The last component of the

    controlling unit is the relays board. It has sixteen relays work as on/off switches that

    can be controlled by digital signal from the microcontroller.

    ection those compo

     

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    Figure 8: Microcontrollers' board Figure 9: Microcontrollers' board

    i)  Microcontrollers' Board

    We have used two microcontrollers. They are PIC 18F452. Each

    microcontroller is fixed on a flash lab board. And we fixed those two flash lab

    boards with electrical connectors on one bigger board to facilitate the

    connectivity to the microcontrollers, figure 8 and 9.

    One of those microcontrollers receives the commands from the server

    PC through RS232 serial connection. This microcontroller is considered as a

    master microcontroller whiles the other as slave. The master microcontroller

    receives the commands from the server PC; and recognizes these

    commands and takes the appropriate actions or delivers them to the slave

    microcontroller if they are related to the two servo motors and the steering

    motor. In addition, the master microcontroller is responsible about

    preventing the occurrence of any type of contradiction between the

    currently running func tions. Moreover, this microcontroller monitors the

    connectivity status with the control station and the continuity of receiving

    updates for the various functions from the control station and trying to save

    the system from collision when the control is lost because of losing the

    connectivity with control station.

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     The other microcontroller works as slave under the managing of the

    master one. The slave microcontroller is responsible to generate pulses that

    are needed to operate the servo motors and the steering motor. Those

    pulses are generated through a software functions instead of using the PWM

    generator hardware, because this generator has no enough channels and

    its pulse period is too short than the required one. Also these functions are

    created in speared microcontroller to obtain higher accuracy in generating

    the required pulses. It is clear that generating a software pulses in

    microcontroller that carrying out a

    long program will end with

    decreasing the accuracy of the

    pulses.

     The master microcontroller is

    connected to the PC through 9 pins

    serial port. This connection is used to

    program the microcontroller and to

    send the command to the controller.

    In the slave microcontroller, the same

    connector is used only for

    programming it; and direct

    connection between the master and

    slave under the SPI serial connection

    protocol is used to carry the

    commands from the master to slave

    microcontroller. The user should note that when he wants to program the

    master microcontroller he must place a jumper in the reset pins to connect

    them and remove it when he want to send a normal command under the

    RS232 protocol. The position of the reset jumper and schematic diagram of

    the micro controller circuit is shown in the figure 10. This diagram shows the

    orientation of the connection terminals of the two microcontrollers. In this

    board there is voltage regulator. It gets 12 volt input and gives 5 volt output.

    The

    Ports of

    the

    Master

    PI

    The Ports of the

    Slave PI

    Figure 10: Microcontrollers' c ircuit diagram 

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     These power terminals is separated from the microcontroller power

    connectors that are connected to the main 12 V power supply. However,

    the ground connec tors are common with all devices in the board.

    Figure 11: H-Bridge

    ii)  H-Bridge

     To derive and control the steering motor, an H-Bridge board is used.

     This device control the current following to

    the motor according to the signal received

    from the microcontroller. The microcontroller

    sends pulses with period of 20 mille second.

     These pulses are changing periodically

    between 0 and 5 volts. As the average of

    the received pulses increased the H-bridge

    raises the supplied current to the steering

    motor.

     This kind of H-bridge has several operation modes. The mode that was

    used in this project was the analog mode. The H-Bridge recognizes the

    digital pulses from the microcontroller as analog input by obtain the

    average of these pulses, figure 11.

    Figure 12: Relays board

    iii) Relays Board

     The relays were used as switches that can be controlled electronically

    to replace the manual of the

    motorbike. In addition, some relays

    were used to control the motion of

    the turning/ tilting metal boxes.

     The relays board that was used

    has 16 relays. Each relay can be

    controlled by logic signal. To control

    these relays a 20 pins cable connects

    the input port in the relays board and

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    Figure 13: Controlling unit circuit diagram

    Work done on the controlling unit We start by testing and recognizing the

    opera

    the port B and port D in the master microcontroller. Each one of these 16

    pins in the microcontroller sends signals for one of those relays, figure 12.

    tion of each device in the controlling unit. Then we worked in developing the

    software for the two microcontrollers. Finally, we worked in the connection

    between the various parts of the controlling unit. Figure 13 shows the schematic

    diagram of the controlling unit.

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    Figure 14: Ac tuators – acceleration

    Figure 15: Actuators – steering motor

    e) 

    Actuators 

    Different types of actuators were used in the Robotic Warrior System. To

    holding and releasing the breaker and the

    accelerator pedals, two servo motors were used.

     The servo motor works depending on the signals

    received from the microcontroller. These signals

    have to have period of 20 millisecond and duty

    time of one millisecond to two milliseconds.

    According to the received signal, the servo

    motor changes the angle of its pulley. This, inturn, changes the position of the breaker or the

    accelerator pedals. The pulley of each servo motors has range of movement of

    180 degrees. The servo motors used were GWServo S777/6BB, figure 14.

     To turning the handlebars of the motorbike, a high current DC motor was

    used. This DC motor is fixed under the handlebars. Its speed and motion direc tion is

    controlled by the current provided from the H-Bridge. The servo name is "Parvalux",

    6 A and 12 DC volts shown in figure 15. Other actuators are the turning/ tilting metal

    boxes. The main function of these actuators is to carry the vision device and the

    weapon and aiming those to specific points by turning or tilting its upper part. Each

    one of these turning/tilting boxes is controlled by four relays. The turning/ tilting

    boxes appear clearly in figures 16, 17.

    Figures 16, 17: Actuators – camera

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    Figure 18: Power supplies

    f) 

    Power 

    Suppliers 

     To providing the required power, a high current +12V and tow 6V batteries

    (two 6 V are parallel connected) were used. Moreover, DC to AC Inverter was

    used to generate an alternative current of 220V to supply the PC and wireless

    router. This DC to AC power inverter takes DC input voltage between 10 to 15 volts

    and gives 220 volts as an AC output voltage. Also, it has a continuous output

    power of 500 watts. All these power suppliers are shown in figure 18.

    Fi ure 19: Vision devices

    g) Vision Devices 

    Vision devices in this project are the cameras. There are two cameras fixed

    on the motorbike. The first camera (front camera) is

    used to see the destination and the surrounding

    areas of the motorbike, while the second camera

    (weapon camera) which is in a higher level than the

    first one, is used for the weapon. Both cameras are

    from the type "Creative PC -CAM 350" as shown in

    figure 19.

     The cameras are connected to the server PC by USB cables. Videos are

    transmitted to the c lient PC wirelessly by using "CamGuard Security System"

    program (UDP Protocol).

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    2.2 

    The 

    Control 

    Station 

    a) 

    Client 

    PC 

     The client PC is a normal desktop PC that is connected to "BelKin" USB

    wireless 802.11 (g) adapter. This adapter will enable

    the client PC to communicate wirelessly with the

    server PC. The client program as shown in figure 20

    requires from the user to enter the IP address of the

    server PC. After entering the IP and pressing button

    "Connect", a connection request will be send from

    the c lient PC to the server PC. If there are no errors

    and the server PC accepts the request, a message

    "Now you are connected to USAD Server" will

    appear in the title bar of the program.

     There are two versions of the c lient program:

    standard version (using buttons only) and steering

    wheel and joystick version. This gives a choice for

    the user to choose the version he wants.

    Video can be viewed in the c lient PC monitor through an Internet Explorer

    window by written in the URL

    the IP address of the server

    PC followed by ":" and then

    the specified port number inthe setting of the camera

    program. Figure 21 shows

    the videos in the c lient PC

    screen.

    Figure 20: Client program

    Figure 21: Camera program

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    b) 

    Joystick 

    In the client program (joystick and steering wheel version), the x and y

    coordinates of the joystick are very important to perform actions in USAD 1 project.

     The joystick of type "Genius" has 8 buttons, and for every button there is a specific

    value for it. The joystick is responsible for controlling the turning/ tilting boxes. For

    example if the joystick is moved to the right, then the x

    value will increase and if the joystick is moved to the left,

    then the x value definitely will decrease. Similarly, the

    same things repeated here for the y value and the

    movement of the joystick (forward/backward), figure 22.

    Depending on the x and y coordinates and on the

    programming conditions in client program, some actions

    will be performed if the joystick is moved to a specific

    direction. If the user moves the joystick to the right, then

    the turning/ tilting box will turn to the right. However, if the

    user moves the joystick to the left, then the turning/ tilting box will turn to the left

    and so on. Selecting any one of the turning/tilting boxes (one for front camera and

    the other for weapon camera) can be done through the joystick buttons.

    Fi ure 22: J o stick

    c) 

    Steering 

    Wheel 

     The same scenario of the joystick applies

    here, turning the wheel will change the x

    coordinate and pressing the pedals will change they coordinate. The "Genius" steering wheel is

    responsible for three things in the USAD 1 project:

    acceleration, steering and breaking. Steering is

    done by turning the steering wheel to the right or to

    the left whereas the acceleration and the break

    can be performed by using the pedals, figure 23.

    Figure 23: Steering wheel

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    Different speeds of the steering can be achieved through the speed wheel

    buttons.

    3. PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

     There are several problems and challenges we face during the project period.

    Some of these problems are:

    •  Problem: Inability to communicate with the Rabbit microcontroller (which we

    were using it before PIC microcontroller) due to connectivity problem in the

    connector cable and this cable is not available in the local market.

    •  Solution: This problem was solved by using PIC 18F microcontroller that is

    available in the System Engineering Department and we also agree that the

    Rabbit microcontroller which we have is not suitable for this project.

    •  Problem: Insufficient number and the short period of PWM channels in the

    PIC 18F microcontroller.

    •  Solution: To solve the problem of the short period of the PIC 18F we created

    three programmed PWM channels for controlling the tow servo motors and

    the steering motor. However, the programmed PWM channel is so accurate

    especially with big programs. To decrease the affects of this problem we

    used two PIC 18F microcontrollers. One of these microcontrollers, which is the

    slave one, was dedicated for controlling the two servo motors and the

    steering motors only, and the other one, which is the master one, for

    performing the rests tasks.

    •  Problem: Inability to Connect the PIC Microcontroller direc tly to the Wireless

    Router.

    •  Solution: We connec t the PIC microcontroller to the server PC on the USAD

    motorbike. We used the RS232 serial connection as a medium of the

    communication. In this case the server PC will receive the commands from

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    the control station through wireless connection. Then, these commands are

    sent to the master PIC microcontroller. In addition, the master microcontroller

    controls the servo motors and the steering motor by sending the commands

    to the slave microcontroller to the through SPI serial communication.

    CONCLUSION

    At the end of our training period we finished our assignments. We presented and

    made a demo for our work in the last day of the training. That demo showed that we

    successfully did all the assignments. In general, in this project we tried to reach thehighest quality as much as we can, while we maintain a low cost and short time.

    By completing all of our assignment, the first phase of the USAD project has been

    completed. The second phase of this project which will be USAD 2 will start from the

    base of our work and will take our comments and suggestion in account.

    I have learned many things in this training period and I got a lot of experiences.

     That can be summarized in the following points:

    •  Get experience in dealing with projects that are used in the real world-working

    environment.

    •  Improved my ability in taking responsibility of a given works and projects.

    •  Improved my ability in finding problems solutions.

    •  Improved my ability in self-learning.

    • 

    Improved my ability in working under the pressure and short of time.

    •  Improved my ability in working within a team.

    •  How to communicate with the employees from different departments.

    •  Improved my knowledge in PIC microcontrollers.

    •  Getting familiar with visual basic language which is a new programming

    language for me.

    •  Improved my knowledge by working with the different components of the

    project such as relays board and actuators.

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    Beside all the above experiences, it was the first time to do a complete project

    and dealing with some issues that not related directly to my major like the mechanical

    issues in this projec t.

    In fact, I benefit a lot from C OE courses in the summer training, specially

    networking courses such as COE 344 (computer networks), COE 441 (local area

    networks) and COE 446 (mobile computing). Also, I benefit a lot from course COE 400

    (system design laboratory) that is closer to what I took in the summer training. We

    learnt design, implementation, debugging, and documentation of a system and here

    in the summer training, we did the same thing.

    Really, the summer training period goes very fast and I really enjoyed it. A lot of

    knowledge, experiences, stresses, and challenges during this few weeks. I found that

    these weeks are valuable and full of knowledge, experiences, and relationships which

    can be gained from the real work environment and its challenges.

    I would like to suggest that before starting the summer training or the coop

    program, a meeting should be done between the students and the coordinator to

    prepare the students before they surprise with real life work. Regarding the courses, I

    think that it will be useful if the student take COE 400, COE 344 and any other elective

    network course before going to the summer training or the coop since it is used a lot in

    the real life.

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    REFERENCES

    1.  The Research Institute Annual Report (2005-2006).

    2. 

    www.kfupm.edu.sa/ri 

    3.  www.wikipedia.org 

    4.  www.thetech.org 

    5.  http://computer.howstuffworks.com 

    6.  www.microsoft.com 

    7.  www.dslreports.com 

    Remotely Controlled Vehicle for Security Applications "USAD 1" Hamad Al-Hajri

    http://www.kfupm.edu.sa/rihttp://www.wikipedia.org/http://www.thetech.org/http://computer.howstuffworks.com/http://www.microsoft.com/http://www.dslreports.com/http://www.dslreports.com/http://www.microsoft.com/http://computer.howstuffworks.com/http://www.thetech.org/http://www.wikipedia.org/http://www.kfupm.edu.sa/ri

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    APPENDIXES

    A. Progress Report 1

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    B. Progress Report 2

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    C. Progress Report 3

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    CERTIFICATE