Overview of the Experiment

The whole experiment consists of two parts, the real experiment and virtual simulation. The real experiment includes the physical aisle, loading zone and unloading zone. Two trucks run on the real setup. The loading zone emits a one bit of 0 or 1 with a certain rate. The emission has some range constraint and the trucks need to come into the range to pick up the bit. The trucks pick up the bit and move along the aisle toward one of the three destinations. At the destination, the truck sends the bit to one of the computer assembly processes. After this, the truck is able to load and move from the loading zone again. If the assembly process comes up with the three bits as designed, then the output is a good product. There are demands associated with the products.

The virtual simulation includes all static experiment objects in the environment, i.e., model of the aisles, loading zone and unloading zone, and one DEVS truck model. There are four more processes running on the computer. Three of which are assembly processes to produce the stream of three-bit product. The other one is the control process, which is in charge of the truck movement controls and traffic controls on the aisle.

Detail Setups

oThe trucks do not talk with each other.

oThe aisle sensors give the location data of the trucks.

·Loading zone:

oLoading zones are two relay stations to send bits out.

oThe relay stations have limited range.

·Sensors:

oLocation sensors tell the position of the truck;

oAisle sensors give information if the truck is on the aisle.

·Simulations:

oAisle model: a graph representation of the real aisle, including the position sensors;

oTruck model: simulates the behavior of the truck, including movements and deviations;

oLoading zone: should have the exact the same behavior of the loading zone as that of the physical one;

oUnloading zone: should have exact the same behavior of the unloading zone as that of the physical one.

oControl process: truck movement control and traffic control.

Motivation

Vehicle Inputs

• Irod Input
• Compass Input
• Processor input (programs)
• Switch Input (On/Off)
• Wheel Settings
• Distance Settings

Vehicle Outputs

• Vehicle distance
• Vehicle orientation
• Speed

Experiment Plan

• Irod gives input and vehicle outputs data by either stopping or turning to avoid the oncoming obstacle. For different irod inputs, examine the output data of the vehicle, and record the data.
• Compass inputs a reference degree setting, after some displacement the compass gives another reading of present orientation. Then finally the vehicle will adjust its orientation to realign itself with the reference degree setting.

• Processor input and vehicle output data

• Integrate input output data

The irod and compass input is divided into several ranges. The program has different pieces to perform different tasks. For different combination of the input, the vehicle’s travel distance and orientation data will be looked up from the table for the virtual model. The data range comes from the experiments.

Data Collection Plan

• Speed Mapping
• Distance Mapping
• Orientation Mapping
• Precision of Distance
• Precision of Smallest Angles
• Precision of Speed

Speed Mapping

Right Wheel setting and Left Wheel setting.

Note: Times are taken for those outputs displacements that have a straight heading.Data will be taken for different Wheel Setting pairs

Output:

Time necessary to travel several specified distances.

 

Left Wheel Setting	Right Wheel  Setting	Distance Setting	Time(s)	Speed = Dn/Tn
LWS1	RWS1	D1	T1	S1
		D2	T2	S2
		D3	T3	S3

Distance Mapping

Distance settings.

Left Wheel and Right Wheel Settings.

Note: Times are taken for those outputs displacements that have a straight heading.Data will be taken for different Distance Settings.

Output:

Actual resulting distance.

 

Distance Setting	Left Wheel Setting	Right Wheel Setting	Actual Distance
DS1	680	800	D1
			D2
			D3
			D4
			D5
	700	810	D1`
			D2`
			D3`
			D4`
			D5`

Orientation Mapping

Reference Setting of a certain number.

Initial angular position.

Final angular position.

Note: These data will be collected for different Reference Settings.

Output:

Angular displacement of car.

 

Reference Setting	Initial Angular Position (compass reading)	Final Angular Position (compass reading)	Output:Angular Displacement (FP-IP)
RS1	IP1	FP1	AP1
	IP2	FP2	AP2
	IP3	FP3	AP3
	IP4	FP4	AP4
	IP5	FP5	AP5

Precision of Distance

Precision of Smallest Angles

Precision of Speed

*Precision of speed mapping proved to be unreasonable to pursue.Given the measuring equipment available in the lab and the precision needed to accurately measure the times over such short distances the precision will have to be acquired using distances greater than one unit.