Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
23 Automatic Volume Control
 Chris Goulet
Eric Davila
Roland Le Grand
 Igor Fedorov design_document0.pdf
final_paper0.pdf
presentation0.presentation
proposal0.pdf
A common problem that anyone who loves music runs into is when they are listening to a song on their stereo in one room, but they need to walk to another room for a moment. What do you do to avoid this problem? Some turn up their stereo really loud so that they can hear it from further away, and some grimace and hurry so that they only miss 20 seconds of their favorite song. But what if there was a way to adjust the volume of the stereo based on the distance that the listener is from it? That is exactly what our senior project addresses. With our Automatic Volume Control system, the volume of any sound system can be adjusted simply by the distance that the listener is from it so that no matter what distance they are from it, it sounds about the same volume. This system will also be able to function with different speakers in different rooms, so that the closer speakers play the music as you move from one room to the other. By carrying an active device like a smart phone, the listenerâ??s position will always be known relative to the speakers in order for this system to function.

Prosthetic Control Board

Caleb Albers, Daniel Lee

Prosthetic Control Board

Featured Project

Psyonic is a local start-up that has been working on a prosthetic arm with an impressive set of features as well as being affordable. The current iteration of the main hand board is functional, but has limitations in computational power as well as scalability. In lieu of this, Psyonic wishes to switch to a production-ready chip that is an improvement on the current micro controller by utilizing a more modern architecture. During this change a few new features would be added that would improve safety, allow for easier debugging, and fix some issues present in the current implementation. The board is also slated to communicate with several other boards found in the hand. Additionally we are looking at the possibility of improving the longevity of the product with methods such as conformal coating and potting.

Core Functionality:

Replace microcontroller, change connectors, and code software to send control signals to the motor drivers

Tier 1 functions:

Add additional communication interfaces (I2C), and add temperature sensor.

Tier 2 functions:

Setup framework for communication between other boards, and improve board longevity.

Overview of proposed changes by affected area:

Microcontroller/Architecture Change:

Teensy -> Production-ready chip (most likely ARM based, i.e. STM32 family of processors)

Board:

support new microcontroller, adding additional communication interfaces (I2C), change to more robust connector. (will need to design pcb for both main control as well as finger sensors)

Sensor:

Addition of a temperature sensor to provide temperature feedback to the microcontroller.

Software:

change from Arduino IDE to new toolchain. (ARM has various base libraries such as mbed and can be configured for use with eclipse to act as IDE) Lay out framework to allow communication from other boards found in other parts of the arm.