Project Overview
For the ME 218C project this year, teams of students each built a remote-controlled boat designed to play sharks and minnows in Terman Fountain. The project consists of two components: the boat and the controller. The controller is able to wirelessly pair with and control the maneuvering and propulsion system of any boat built by other 218C students. During gameplay, "prey" boats are given a balloon that the "hunter" boats must attempt to pop. At the beginning of the project, all teams collaborated to develop a class-wide communications protocol, which allowed each controller to control any boat.
Project Specifications
- Boats must be able to navigate an 18 inch deep pool of water.
- Controllers (the "Bosyn") must be able to wirelessly pair with and control any boat. A standardized protocol will be developed by the class and implemented by all teams to allow any controller to control any boat.
- Controllers and boats will communicate using XBee radios.
- A balloon will be mounted on boats that are designated as prey during gameplay. Boats must automatically detect whether or not their balloon is inflated to determine if they are a hunter or a prey.
- All boats must contain a Byter, a mechanism capable of popping balloons on other boats. The Byter remain in a retracted position when it is not actively extending to pop a balloon.
- When a boat’s balloon is popped, it must automatically detect that it is now a hunter. It will also unpair with its current controller, and must not allow pairing requests from that same controller for 5 seconds (other controllers may take over the boat during this time).
- Boats are limited to a waterline circumference of 6ft.
- Boats may be powered by up to two 7.4V batteries and one 5V battery.
- The controllers have complete control over the propulsion and maneuvering system of their paired boat.
- Messaging between the boat and the controller must not exceed a 5Hz messaging rate.
- Messaging will take place over an asynchronous communications channel using 9600 baud, 8N1 at 3.3V levels.
The full project spec can be downloaded here:
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Project Development
Project development began on May 8th, 2023 and concluded with the public presentation on May 31st 2023. The photos below show snapshots of progress along the way.
Our Progress Log can additionally be downloaded here:
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Gems of Wisdom
- Get your boat into the water as early as possible.
- Don’t use electrical components from the cabinet of freedom.
- Make your electronics easy-to-access for debugging.
- Order backups of critical components - you can always return unused parts afterwards.
- Order components early.
- Get some sleep.
- Test for robustness - something that works a few times on a lab bench will not necessarily work for 1-2 hours on presentation day.
- Acquire a stash of screws, solder, wires, adhesives, and other basic supplies at the start of the project.