Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
22 Smart Shopping Cart
 Di Fan
Xuyang Yao
Ying He
 appendix0.pdf
design_document0.pdf
final_paper0.pdf
presentation0.presentation
proposal0.pdf
The project aims to build a smart shopping cart that could follow the customer automatically by frequently tracking the customer's position. A signal receiver is embedded into the cart to provide information for the control unit to determine the cart's speed and route, and where it should stop. In case that the cart may be trapped in some narrow passages, an alarm will sound when the cart falls too much behind. Sensors are built in the cart to detect stationary objects such as shelves and walls. The cart will try to avoid them by making slight changes to its direction until it finds an accessible path. In addition, the cart is also able to track other moving objects. When the cart detects a moving obstacle in its way, the control unit makes the decision based on the following scheme: the cart always slows down to yield to customers, and it also slows down if other carts are moving at higher speeds; if the obstacle still presents at about one braking distance away, the cart needs to make a stop and it restarts until the way is cleared. The smart shopping cart also functions as a GPS that leads customers to the goods they are looking for. Four signal sources are placed at each corner of the store so that the cart could track its position by comparing the distances from those sources. Moreover, the cart is able to calculate the actual size of the store. Basic layout of the store is depicted based on the relative distances from the four signal sources. In this way, the cart can generate an actual map based on the map we design in a relative scale. A board with buttons representing different goods serves as the user interface for the cart. Customers can push these buttons to enter a shopping list. If they choose to enter items one by one, the cart will lead them to the product before they could enter a new one. If they put the entire list all at once, the cart is expected to figure out the most efficient path that covers all products they enter.

Resonant Cavity Field Profiler

Salaj Ganesh, Max Goin, Furkan Yazici

Resonant Cavity Field Profiler

Featured Project

# Team Members:

- Max Goin (jgoin2)

- Furkan Yazici (fyazici2)

- Salaj Ganesh (salajg2)

# Problem

We are interested in completing the project proposal submitted by Starfire for designing a device to tune Resonant Cavity Particle Accelerators. We are working with Tom Houlahan, the engineer responsible for the project, and have met with him to discuss the project already.

Resonant Cavity Particle Accelerators require fine control and characterization of their electric field to function correctly. This can be accomplished by pulling a metal bead through the cavities displacing empty volume occupied by the field, resulting in measurable changes to its operation. This is typically done manually, which is very time-consuming (can take up to 2 days).

# Solution

We intend on massively speeding up this process by designing an apparatus to automate the process using a microcontroller and stepper motor driver. This device will move the bead through all 4 cavities of the accelerator while simultaneously making measurements to estimate the current field conditions in response to the bead. This will help technicians properly tune the cavities to obtain optimum performance.

# Solution Components

## MCU:

STM32Fxxx (depending on availability)

Supplies drive signals to a stepper motor to step the metal bead through the 4 quadrants of the RF cavity. Controls a front panel to indicate the current state of the system. Communicates to an external computer to allow the user to set operating conditions and to log position and field intensity data for further analysis.

An MCU with a decent onboard ADC and DAC would be preferred to keep design complexity minimum. Otherwise, high MIPS performance isn’t critical.

## Frequency-Lock Circuitry:

Maintains a drive frequency that is equal to the resonant frequency. A series of op-amps will filter and form a control loop from output signals from the RF front end before sampling by the ADCs. 2 Op-Amps will be required for this task with no specific performance requirements.

## AC/DC Conversion & Regulation:

Takes an AC voltage(120V, 60Hz) from the wall and supplies a stable DC voltage to power MCU and motor driver. Ripple output must meet minimum specifications as stated in the selected MCU datasheet.

## Stepper Drive:

IC to control a stepper motor. There are many options available, for example, a Trinamic TMC2100. Any stepper driver with a decent resolution will work just fine. The stepper motor will not experience large loading, so the part choice can be very flexible.

## ADC/DAC:

Samples feedback signals from the RF front end and outputs the digital signal to MCU. This component may also be built into the MCU.

## Front Panel Indicator:

Displays the system's current state, most likely a couple of LEDs indicating progress/completion of tuning.

## USB Interface:

Establishes communication between the MCU and computer. This component may also be built into the MCU.

## Software:

Logs the data gathered by the MCU for future use over the USB connection. The position of the metal ball and phase shift will be recorded for analysis.

## Test Bed:

We will have a small (~ 1 foot) proof of concept accelerator for the purposes of testing. It will be supplied by Starfire with the required hardware for testing. This can be left in the lab for us to use as needed. The final demonstration will be with a full-size accelerator.

# Criterion For Success:

- Demonstrate successful field characterization within the resonant cavities on a full-sized accelerator.

- Data will be logged on a PC for later use.

- Characterization completion will be faster than current methods.

- The device would not need any input from an operator until completion.

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