IR Tracker
Team Members
- Mark Straccia (Mechanical Engineering, Class of 2009)
- Matt Turpin (Mechanical Engineering, Class of 2009)
- Alice Zhao (Electrical Engineering, Class of 2008)
Overview
The IR Tracker is a device that follows a moving infrared light.
Goal of the project: To create a device that continuously detects the position of an infrared emitter in two axises, and tracks the emitter with a laser.
How it works: There are two major steps that the IR Tracker follows: (1) Identify the position of the IR emitter (2) Rotate the device to align itself with the IR emitter.
(1) The IR Tracker finds the location of the maximum infrared intensity in both the x-axis and y-axis. Two encoders continuously record the position of the IR emitter based on intensity levels detected by two IR detectors.
(2) Given the information about the location of the IR emitter, the device rotates itself in two dimensions to adjusts its plane to be normal to the emitter. At this point, the laser should point to the emitter.
Outline of Wiki Page:
- Mechanical Design
- Electrical Design
- PIC Code
- Lessons Learned
Mechanical Design
The primary components used in this circuit are:
- Plexiglas
- Turntable (part number, vendor, cost, when available)
- Mirror (part number, vendor, cost, when available)
The goals:
- Pitman Motors - constantly detect location of the emitter
- RC Servos - move the device to get align with emitter
Electrical Design
The primary components used in this circuit are:
- Controller (PIC)
- H-Bridge
- Hall Sensors
- Schmidt Triggers
Code
Results
Our resulting design:
Reflections
- More planning
- Simpler mechanical design
- More efficient code
