Mechatronics Team B

The cyberphysical architecture is an embedded system layout of how information flows between the subsystems and how these subsystems interface to the software that integrates the entire system. The software is an event-based program developed on a host computer and loaded onto the microcontroller independently. It will define the robot’s decisions to take based on interpretation of the perceptions in its environment. These perceptions come in the form of signals from the sensors: the ultrasonic and quadrature encoders. The controller subsystem deciphers these signals through the aid of its peripherals so as to understand the current state of the robot (distance from the barrier, distance traveled so far, etc.), and then from this information the controller subsystem will make a decision on the state to transition to next. The output peripherals will convert the binary data from the microcontroller to the appropriate form, PWM in this context, to drive the fans in the adhesion subsystem and motors for the wheels in the locomotion subsystem. This will implement some purposeful determined real-world action (e.g., set the motors of the wheels to rotate at particular angular velocities to move in a specific direction, set the fan speed to provide thrust up and into the window, etc.).