Getting Parts for Your Project :: ECE 445 - Senior Design Laboratory

Getting Parts for Your Project

Student groups have a budget of $50 per student as of fall 2023. This money can be accessed through your TAs CFOP number. The ways parts can be sources are listed below in order of desirability.

1. Lab Kit

Each group is issued a locker and lab kit. A lab kit should include banana plugs and a breadboard.

2. ECEB 2070 Lab

There are many parts available for free in the ECEB 2070 lab such as THT passive components, MOSFETs, and line operated DC power supplies.

3. ECE 445 Inventory

Your TA can check out parts ECE 445 stores in white cabinets at the back of the lab: link. This inventory spreadsheet has not been updated in some time. There are items on this list that may not be in the cabinets and there are items in the cabinets that may not be on this list. Use this form for checkout: link

4. Electronics Services Shop (A.K.A. ECE Services Shop)

The Electronics Services Shop is located on the first floor of ECEB near the cargo elevator in ECEB 1041. They have a large stock of THT ICs (such as op-amps), potentiometers, motors, resistors, connectors, etc. Visit them when they are open to pick up parts.

Self-Service Inventory

Recently, they have started stocking 0805 surface mount passive components, crystal oscillators, microcontrollers, and linear regulators. The microcontroller portion of your board can probably be built entirely with parts from the Electronics Services Shop.  You do not need to pay for parts you obtain from the Electronics Services Shop.

SMD Component Inventory

To obtain parts from the e-shop, please contact your TA with a list. Your TA must email the e-shop and they will collect the parts. Your TA will get an email when the parts are ready. Your TA must pick up the parts from the e-shop . The e-shop will not release the parts to you.

SMD Parts Request Form

 

5. ECE Supply Center (A.K.A. ECE Store)

The ECE Supply Center is located on the first floor of ECEB in room 1031 near the loading dock. You must pay for parts out of pocket or with your TA's CFOP number. They stock breadboards, project boxes, jumper wires, THT LSI logic ICs, THT analog ICs, and more. This is a fantastic resource for building prototypes. You can search their catalog here: https://my.ece.illinois.edu/storeroom/catalog.asp.

6. Free Samples from Companies

It should be mentioned that companies many times are willing to provide small quantities of their products to students engaged in design projects. You might consider approaching the manufacturer directly, particularly regarding their newer products which they are interested in promoting. Don't count on success with this, but it has often been very useful.

7. MY.ECE Ordering (last resort)

You can order parts from amazon, digikey, mouser, etc. using the money provided to you by the course with your TA's CFOP number. Orders placed through this avenue must be approved by your TA through myECE. If you order multiple parts through digikey or mouser, please provide a shopping cart link. This method of ordering is best for parts that cannot be found in any of the sources listed above. This includes SMD MOSFETs, high performance ADCs/DACs, power converter ICs, SMD op amps, modem ICs, etc. Please refer to this tutorial for more instructions: http://courses.engr.illinois.edu/ece445/lab/resources/ece_purchasing_app_tutorial.pdf

Personal Purchases

It is always possible and encouraged to purchase your own parts from a local store (Radio Shack, Best Buy, etc.) or order them from online vendors. Personal purchases will not be reimbursed by the department.

Decentralized Systems for Ground & Arial Vehicles (DSGAV)

Mingda Ma, Alvin Sun, Jialiang Zhang

Featured Project

# Team Members

* Yixiao Sun (yixiaos3)

* Mingda Ma (mingdam2)

* Jialiang Zhang (jz23)

# Problem Statement

Autonomous delivery over drone networks has become one of the new trends which can save a tremendous amount of labor. However, it is very difficult to scale things up due to the inefficiency of multi-rotors collaboration especially when they are carrying payload. In order to actually have it deployed in big cities, we could take advantage of the large ground vehicle network which already exists with rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft. The roof of an automobile has plenty of spaces to hold regular size packages with magnets, and the drone network can then optimize for flight time and efficiency while factoring in ground vehicle plans. While dramatically increasing delivery coverage and efficiency, such strategy raises a challenging problem of drone docking onto moving ground vehicles.

# Solution

We aim at tackling a particular component of this project given the scope and time limitation. We will implement a decentralized multi-agent control system that involves synchronizing a ground vehicle and a drone when in close proximity. Assumptions such as knowledge of vehicle states will be made, as this project is aiming towards a proof of concepts of a core challenge to this project. However, as we progress, we aim at lifting as many of those assumptions as possible. The infrastructure of the lab, drone and ground vehicle will be provided by our kind sponsor Professor Naira Hovakimyan. When the drone approaches the target and starts to have visuals on the ground vehicle, it will automatically send a docking request through an RF module. The RF receiver on the vehicle will then automatically turn on its assistant devices such as specific LED light patterns which aids motion synchronization between ground and areo vehicles. The ground vehicle will also periodically send out locally planned paths to the drone for it to predict the ground vehicle’s trajectory a couple of seconds into the future. This prediction can help the drone to stay within close proximity to the ground vehicle by optimizing with a reference trajectory.

### The hardware components include:

Provided by Research Platforms

* A drone

* A ground vehicle

* A camera

Developed by our team

* An LED based docking indicator

* RF communication modules (xbee)

* Onboard compute and communication microprocessor (STM32F4)

* Standalone power source for RF module and processor

# Required Circuit Design

We will integrate the power source, RF communication module and the LED tracking assistant together with our microcontroller within our PCB. The circuit will also automatically trigger the tracking assistant to facilitate its further operations. This special circuit is designed particularly to demonstrate the ability for the drone to precisely track and dock onto the ground vehicle.

# Criterion for Success -- Stages

1. When the ground vehicle is moving slowly in a straight line, the drone can autonomously take off from an arbitrary location and end up following it within close proximity.

2. Drones remains in close proximity when the ground vehicle is slowly turning (or navigating arbitrarily in slow speed)

3. Drone can dock autonomously onto the ground vehicle that is moving slowly in straight line

4. Drone can dock autonomously onto the ground vehicle that is slowly turning

5. Increase the speed of the ground vehicle and successfully perform tracking and / or docking

6. Drone can pick up packages while flying synchronously to the ground vehicle

We consider project completion on stage 3. The stages after that are considered advanced features depending on actual progress.

Project Videos

Business Office

If none of these methods work, you can go through the business office with the help of your TA.