ECE 4760: Final Project

Ultrasonic Pursuit Automobile

 

Andrew Wilson (aw653@cornell.edu)

Ashkan Ravani (ar856@cornell.edu)

Divyanshu Tiwari (dt282@cornell.edu)

"An autonomous system capable of following a human controlled RC car"

project soundbyte

We’ve implemented an autonomous pursuit vehicle capable of chasing a designated target using ultrasonic transmissions. The system is demonstrated by chasing a second, human-controlled, RC car. The pursuit unit is equipped with a 24kHz transmitter and two 40kHz receivers, while the target unit has a 24kHz receiver and a 40kHz transmitter. The target unit responds with an ultrasonic pulse emission when its receiver detects an incoming pulse. By timing the respective response times on the two receivers, the pursuit unit calculates the relative position of the target unit. A PID control mechanism then directs the motor to follow the target.

By installing a simple transducer pair, the system can theoretically be adapted to follow any target. Some practically useful applications might be as a game, or as a shopping cart that follows a designated shopper. Since the pursuing unit’s microcontroller can observe real-time position data of the target system, installing a well-developed version of such a system on police cars and with civilian installation, speed measurements can be performed by a pursuit vehicle as opposed to having to use speed guns.

 

The finished product, and working in lab