Month: December 2014

Dec 22

Obstacle "Sense and Avoid" using Stereo Vision for Unmanned Aerial Systems

We have received a small award to pursue Stereo Vision on board small unmanned aircraft (aka drones, quad-copters, multi-copters). Obstacle sense and avoid (SAA) on board aerial vehicles is a key technology that needs to be addressed in order to meet the FAA safety requirements for future integration of drones into the civil airspace. Visual approaches, such as stereo vision, can play an important role in meeting these requirements.

We will be working with the 3D Robotics X8 copter and a set of embedded cameras. Students interested in being involved, please contact me.

Illustration of depth perception using stereo cameras3D Robotics X8 copter

Dec 22

Projects in Embedded Systems Design Course (Fall 2014)

ECE473 Embedded Systems Design for Fall 2014 has concluded recently. In the course, we work with ARM Cortex-M4F microcontrollers, mainly using the TI Tiva C Launchpad. The following are some of the final projects student teams have designed and implemented (in about 3 weeks).

Motorcycle Tilt Meter and Warning System
Entails interfacing a 3-axis accelerometer to measure tilt, a circular LED array, and designing a wheel RPM sensor to measure motorcycle velocity. Software and modeling challenges include identifying the safe tilt angle as a function of velocity.

Project by: Jason Learst and Alfred Kishek

2048 Game
Implementing the popular 2048 game on the embedded hardware. Entails interfacing a graphics LCD display, a matrix keypad, and developing the game engine.

Project by: Chuanzhi Yi and Hongsheng Wang

Location Reporting and Recording for High Altitude Balloons
Entails interfacing a GPS receiver, an SD Card, and a GSM modem. File System implementation is a major software component.

Project by: Gabriel Church, Nadeem Kizi, Felipe Marliere, Michael Azar