auto sailor project

[mohd9011]

hi

I'm making a ship that sail by an auto sailor system as a senior project for my university the idea is putting 5 ultrasound sensors on the boat and send the outputs to a chip that controls a servo motor that attached to the helm of the ship..

my questions are:
1- is there is any way to convert the output of the sensors to digital 1s and 0s? because all the ADC i found was audio converters
2- how to make the chip close the ship motor so the ship stops?
3- is there is any program where i can emulate the system before start buying the parts?
4- any advice to develop my project.

thanks anyway.

 

[(*steve*)]

1) rectifier/filter?

2) You know a boat doesn't stop when the motor does, right?

3) Ship simulator? No.

4) learn to sail.

What on earth a 5 ultrasonic sensors going to tell you?

Motors on the helm? Are you using thrusters, or motorising the steering?

I assume this is a toy boat?

Have you considered looking at what remote control models use, or alternatively what is done on full scale sailing vessels?

 

[mohd9011]

What on earth a 5 ultrasonic sensors going to tell you?
they suppose to tell if there is any obstacles on the boat's way so he can move the boat away

You know a boat doesn't stop when the motor does, right?
now i know, so is there is any other way to make the ship stop?

Motors on the helm? Are you using thrusters, or motorising the steering?
the pics below explain what i mean

I assume this is a toy boat?
yes

Have you considered looking at what remote control models use, or alternatively what is done on full scale sailing vessels?

i searched alot of tutorials on the net end youtube and i found this way in it


the project design photos
http://i.imgur.com/JkPCHpx.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/PcK4OUw.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/eAsIFla.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/3Z28xWk.jpg

thank you

 

[(*steve*)]

Ah, when you said "sail", I presumed you meant "sail". (and as such, the "auto sailor" would be there to keep you on a constant heading)

I think what you are doing is more accurately called an "auto-pilot" -- where "pilot" is used in the maritime sense.

I'm not sure that you need 5 sensors, but that's up to you. There are some very cheap ultrasonic sensors available which will return a pulse proportional in length to distance.

Something like this.

Then grab a microcontroller (preferably one you're already familiar with) and start working.

If you had boating experience it would be a great help because boats are not like cars. Boats drift sideways, and do a whole lot of things that are counter-intuitive to someone not familiar with them.

 

[mohd9011]

first of all thanks for the advice

second thing: about the 5 sensors to get a better detection of the obstacles's place and return 1 if they is any then i will sum the all of the 5 returns and move the ship according to the binary result of this equation:
(first return*1)+(second return*10)+(third return*100)+(fourth return*1000)+(fifth return*10000)
and according to the result i will get an accurate place of the obstacles and rotate the ship in a certain degree.

 

[CocaCola]

There is a huge problem with ultrasonic sensors and many other sensors in regards to boat collision detection...

Consider this, it's a calm day and you are heading towards a beach or any other gradual transition of water to land... The detectors will never detect a collision, you will beach the boat as nothing will every be in front of you to detect... And on the flip side of this, on a windy or bad weather day, it's not far fetched that when you are in the 'through' of the wave that the waves on each side (or forward and back) of you will be detected as collision points...

Same thing with other objects, where do you place a sensor to detect say a floating log or partially submerged rock that is only a few inches above the surface? You can't place the sensor that low or else even the slightest wave will trigger it...

You really need sonar, radar, GPS and a good set of navigation maps to get anywhere near reliable...

 

[mohd9011]

the idea will be done on a small toy so we can prove to the uni that if we can do it with sensors we can do it by any thing