3 Mobile Car

The objective of this project was to implement a mobile robot model shown in
Fig. 1, for the aim of mining and navigation process. This was done in two stages: the
first was to study the kinematics of robot and to propose the navigation strategies. The
second was to propose a detailed complete design and implementation of electronic
interface, and software algorithm.

Fig. 1 Photo of mobile car model

3.1 Mobile car kinematics
The exact position and orientation of the car can be described by four variables. As
shown in Fig. 2, the (x,y) coordinates give the location of the center of the rear axle.
The car's angle with respect to the x axis is given by θ. The steering wheel's angle
with respect to the car's longitudinal axis is given by φ.
The velocity of the car in x and y direction can be written as

Where v1 is the linear velocity of the rear wheels

The location of the center of the front axle (x1,y1) is given by
And the velocity is given by

Assume that no slipping to the front wheels the velocity equation can be written as

Hence the complete kinematics model is given as

Fig. 2 Global coordinate system for the car

After the preparation of the kinematics model, the simulation stage

had been started. A flowchart of the simulation program is shown in
Fig.3----. First, the initialization involves creating the car and path for
animation and placing the car on the path. Next, the car’s position
on the path is determined and the values needed by the controller
are calculated. With these values known, the controller then
calculates the necessary velocity and steering inputs to make the

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car follow the path. These inputs are used in the kinematics model
to update the car’s position and the animation is then updated to
show the car’s new location. These steps are repeated until the end
of the simulation is reached.

Fig. 3 Simulation flow chart

The movement of the car is determined over the sampling period, T.
The previous kinematic was implemented in Simulink and is shown
in Fig. 4. The model uses the current position (x; y; θ;φ) as the initial
conditions and integrates to determine the
car’s new position after the inputs are applied for time T. It is
assumed that the inputs are constant over the sampling time, as
they are on the actual car. The results of such simulation is shown in
Fig. 5

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 Fig. 4 Simulink representation of car kinematics model

3.2 Control and interface

The wireless control consists of two physical modules as shown in fig. 6

1. Module One: Intelligent Controller

Consists of Computer with Intelligent Control Strategy, Interface circuit,
Modulation/Demodulation circuit , and Transceiver
2. Module Two: Application Module
Consists of Transceiver, Demodulation/Modulation circuit, intelligent
microcontroller, drive interface circuit, and sensors for feedback
The Control Operation consists of the following main steps:
• Module one sends the reference signal from the master computer as a digital
signal. This signal is processed through an interface circuit and taken to the
modulator that carries the signal to the transmitter. The modulated signal is
then transmitted as a digitized magnetic signal through space.
• Module two receives the signal and takes it to a demodulator that passes the
original digital signal to the microcontroller. The microcontroller processes
the signal and passes it to the proposed drives through interface.
• The sensors attached to the physical drives senses the needed controlled
variables and send them back to the microcontroller through a signal
conditioner and analog-to-digital circuit. The embedded microcontroller then
process the signal using its embedded program and implement synchronization
process.

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 Signal Cond.
Intelligent Master &
Control ADC

Personal Computer Intellig. Micro-Cont. Drive1

&
Interface

Interface Drive2
Modulation/Demo

Sensors
Modulation/Demo Transceiver Transceiver (Ultrasonic ,Infrared ,..etc..)

Fig. 6 Block diagram for Intelligent remote control of mobile car

The muscle of the robot, which is the DC motor, is controlled by a microcontroller,

which guided the robot from one station to another based on the instructions coming
from the remote administration. The microcontroller employed a parallel port
connection to interface with the GUI (Graphical User Interface).
Components: ultrasonic proximity receiver/transmitter & transformer, parallel
port with 4 opto-couplers, transmitter circuit, receiver circuit, PIC 16F877, H-bridge,
DC motor.

The main interface circuit is shown in Fig. 7 while fig. 8 shows the motion algorithm
for programming the used PIC microcontroller

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Fig. 7 Main interface circuit for mobile car

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 Start

Check the state of car “Battery , Temp “ and the

position , if there is a problem go to chart 2

Check the left , right, Forward car sides

If there are obstacles in all sides

YES

NO

is left /right
NO
sensor detect
Obstacle

Make a brake and stop the car

YES if forward sensor
detect obstacle

YES NO

Interrupt the driven signal and take a good

Interrupt the driven signal and take a good
response
response
e.g. if detect forward obstacle make a brake
e.g. if detect right obstacle go to left
or make it slow

Fig. 8 PIC microcontroller motion algorithm

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5.1 Industrial Crane Model

The objective of this project was to build a prototype model of single girder
overhead crane that has a length of 2 m, a width of 1.2 m and a height of 1 m. The
design used three DC motors for xyz-directions, PIC microcontroller, keypad, limit
switches, three positioning sensors, control and drive circuits. The user can specify
the desired position by entering the coordinates on the keypad. Then, the controller
sends the appropriate signals to the motors in order to move the girder to its target.
The mechanical components are composed of the frame, the girder, and the
trolley. The electrical parts consisted of three DC motors (easier to control and
interface than AC). The system has three DC motors as: Hock Motor: to lifted the
load. Trolley Motor: to moved the trolley above the girder. Girder Motor: to
moved the girder above the bridges. Each dc motor has internal gears to reduce
the speed and increase the torque with gear ratio 1/140 (3 – Ampere, 12 - Volt., )
36 - Watt power.
Three displacement sensors (x,y,z) : hook position, trolley position, bridges position
But these sensors is too expensive so we took decision to made linear optical
encoders for the X and Y direction that’s give digital signal with resolution 1pulse/cm
We used 2 optical switches LTH860-T55 and we made its tracks from the plastic then
we fixed it on the frame. For Z direction we put rotational optical encoder on the shaft
of the pulley to get the cycles that the pulley rotates then we can calculate the
displacement of Z. The resolution of the disc used is 20pulse/revolution
Four digital limit switches. We need four limit switches to stop the hock, trolley and

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 Auto Mode
Start
Manual Mode

GO To Check the
Home position form
Check Position Keypad
Keypad

Manual Read
Check Mode Auto Mode
Mode M/A
encoders
Drive The
Motor

Check the
direction of X Y Z
Check the and Calculate the
Limit Sw of Displacement Of
the Movment XYZ

Read encoder
of the Drive The
Movment Motors

Out The
position On Read encoder
LCD of the
Movment

Reuturn

Check all the

Limit Sw

Stop The
motors
When they get
the position

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Reuturn
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