Swarm Robotics in Vehicles
Budget: $30 – $250 CAD
The hardware implementation of our project is based on the master and slave relationship between the two bots. These 2 bots communicate with each other to make coordinated movements. The master bot has to perform two main functions,
1. Perform the task given,
2. Communicate and control the slave bot.
The motion of the slave bot depends on the signal from the master bot. The master bot has three ultrasonic sensors (HC-SR04) and one Infrared Obstacle detection sensor (EK-1254) connected at the front and two sides of the bot, to detect the obstacles in front of it. The slave bot is not equipped with sensors to detect the objects. The inbuilt Wi-Fi feature in the ESP-32 is used to send signals from the master bot to the slave bot. The slave bot starts moving towards its destination in control of the master bot. If there is an obstacle in front of the master bot, then it stops the motors, takes a turn, and will provide the signal to the slave bot. If no obstacle comes in front of the master bot and everything is clear, then it will communicate with the motor to move forward and the slave bot will follow the direction of the master bot.
In this project, we are using Arduino IDE to program the ESP-32 chip to perform the task. Due to the nature of Swarm robotics, we are using the ESPNow platform that utilizes the wifi functionality of the ESP32. This platform allows one ESP32 chip to act as a master and broadcast data to other ESP32s. The MAC address of the ESP32 that is receiving the data is declared in the code of the Master ESP32.
1. Perform the task given,
2. Communicate and control the slave bot.
The motion of the slave bot depends on the signal from the master bot. The master bot has three ultrasonic sensors (HC-SR04) and one Infrared Obstacle detection sensor (EK-1254) connected at the front and two sides of the bot, to detect the obstacles in front of it. The slave bot is not equipped with sensors to detect the objects. The inbuilt Wi-Fi feature in the ESP-32 is used to send signals from the master bot to the slave bot. The slave bot starts moving towards its destination in control of the master bot. If there is an obstacle in front of the master bot, then it stops the motors, takes a turn, and will provide the signal to the slave bot. If no obstacle comes in front of the master bot and everything is clear, then it will communicate with the motor to move forward and the slave bot will follow the direction of the master bot.
In this project, we are using Arduino IDE to program the ESP-32 chip to perform the task. Due to the nature of Swarm robotics, we are using the ESPNow platform that utilizes the wifi functionality of the ESP32. This platform allows one ESP32 chip to act as a master and broadcast data to other ESP32s. The MAC address of the ESP32 that is receiving the data is declared in the code of the Master ESP32.