Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
61 Automated Wildlife watcher
Edwin Lu
Kelvin Chen
Xu Gao
Abhisheka Mathur Sekar design_document1.pdf
final_paper2.pdf
photo1.jpg
photo3.png
photo5.jpg
presentation1.pptx
proposal2.pdf
video1.mp4
video
# Title
Automated Wildlife watcher

Team Members:
- Kelvin Chen (kelvin3)
- Edwin Lu (jiajun3)
- Xu Gao (xugao2)

# Problem

Despite interests and concern over climate change and human development, there is actually very little data available about both the diversity and distribution of wildlife insects or avian pollinators. This is especially concerning when considering the myriad number of species that are poorly understood. How many are there? How do they live? What do they eat? What can be done to help further their numbers or have the least negative impact.

It typically takes a lot of time and effort to survey wildlife populations, a more popular approach is to citizen science. By setting up feeding stations or flowering plants in private residences and documenting visiting species, we can gather a more complete picture of the ecological distribution and possible human impact on the local species. But this too is a limited approach as it depends on observers spending time outside and physically observing and document what they saw, a costly and arguably, ineffective method of data collection.


# Solution

Our proposed solution is an automated camera system that keeps watch of a specific location, such as a backyard or a patch of flowers, for a prolonged period of time and captures photos or videos of wildlife that enters its view.

Because of the proposed size of the area and the smaller relative size of the bird/insect, the camera must be placed on a self-adjustable gimbal that will angle the camera to the bird/insect and so the camera can zoom onto it for a more clear image. This will create a feedback loop of detecting motion, adjusting to the movement, and capturing the movement.


# Solution Components

## Subsystem 1: Camera module

Camera module with a motion sensing algorithm reacts to dynamic objects (birds, insects, etc.). It has software implemented that is trained to recognize the objects in different directions. When a moving object is detected, the camera module will align and focus on a small area around the moving object and try to follow it using object tracking algorithms like YOLO, Faster R-CNN.


## Subsystem 2: Gimbal stand

A gimbal is connected to the camera to stabilize and support it. Once the camera identifies the target object, the motor will turn the camera so that the target will stay within the camera range.


## Subsystem 3: Microcontrolller on a PCB
The microcontroller on the customized PCB will be able to receive the data from the camera module and send a signal to the mechanical system.


## Subsystem 4: Power system

A power system will be connected to the other subsystems. A voltage converter may be needed to supply the electric energy for the camera module and the gimbal.


# Criterion For Success

- Camera can detect object entering its field of vision
- Gimbal can adjust and follow the object that is moving
- The software will zooming the object and capture a photo or video

ATTITUDE DETERMINATION AND CONTROL MODULE FOR UIUC NANOSATELLITES

Shamith Achanta, Rick Eason, Srikar Nalamalapu

Featured Project

Team Members:

- Rick Eason (reason2)

- Srikar Nalamalapu (svn3)

- Shamith Achanta (shamith2)

# Problem

The Aerospace Engineering department's Laboratory for Advanced Space Systems at Illinois (LASSI) develops nanosatellites for the University of Illinois. Their next-generation satellite architecture is currently in development, however the core bus does not contain an Attitude Determination and Control (ADCS) system.

In order for an ADCS system to be useful to LASSI, the system must be compliant with their modular spacecraft bus architecture.

# Solution

Design, build, and test an IlliniSat-0 spec compliant ADCS module. This requires being able to:

- Sense and process the Earth's weak magnetic field as it passes through the module.

- Sense and process the spacecraft body's <30 dps rotation rate.

- Execute control algorithms to command magnetorquer coil current drivers.

- Drive current through magnetorquer coils.

As well as being compliant to LASSI specification for:

- Mechanical design.

- Electrical power interfaces.

- Serial data interfaces.

- Material properties.

- Serial communications protocol.

# Solution Components

## Sensing

Using the Rohm BM1422AGMV 3-axis magnetometer we can accurately sense 0.042 microTesla per LSB, which gives very good overhead for sensing Earth's field. Furthermore, this sensor is designed for use in wearable electronics as a compass, so it also contains programable low-pass filters. This will reduce MCU processing load.

Using the Bosch BMI270 3-axis gyroscope we can accurately sense rotation rate at between ~16 and ~260 LSB per dps, which gives very good overhead to sense low-rate rotation of the spacecraft body. This sensor also contains a programable low-pass filter, which will help reduce MCU processing load.

Both sensors will communicate over I2C to the MCU.

## Serial Communications

The LASSI spec for this module requires the inclusion of the following serial communications processes:

- CAN-FD

- RS422

- Differential I2C

The CAN-FD interface is provided from the STM-32 MCU through a SN65HVD234-Q1 transceiver. It supports all CAN speeds and is used on all other devices on the CAN bus, providing increased reliability.

The RS422 interface is provided through GPIO from the STM-32 MCU and uses the TI THVD1451 transceiver. RS422 is a twisted-pair differential serial interface that provides high noise rejection and high data rates.

The Differential I2C is provided by a specialized transceiver from NXP, which allows I2C to be used reliably in high-noise and board-to-board situations. The device is the PCA9615.

I2C between the sensors and the MCU is provided by the GPIO on the MCU and does not require a transceiver.

## MCU

The MCU will be an STM32L552, exact variant and package is TBD due to parts availability. This MCU provides significant processing power, good GPIO, and excellent build and development tools. Firmware will be written in either C or Rust, depending on some initial testing.

We have access to debugging and flashing tools that are compatible with this MCU.

## Magnetics Coils and Constant Current Drivers

We are going to wind our own copper wire around coil mandrels to produce magnetorquers that are useful geometries for the device. A 3d printed mandrel will be designed and produced for each of the three coils. We do not believe this to be a significant risk of project failure because the geometries involved are extremely simple and the coil does not need to be extremely precise. Mounting of the coils to the board will be handled by 3d printed clips that we will design. The coils will be soldered into the board through plated through-holes.

Driving the inductors will be the MAX8560 500mA buck converter. This converter allows the MCU to toggle the activity of the individual coils separately through GPIO pins, as well as good soft-start characteristics for the large current draw of the coils.

## Board Design

This project requires significant work in the board layout phase. A 4-layer PCB is anticipated and due to LASSI compliance requirements the board outline, mounting hole placement, part keep-out zones, and a large stack-through connector (Samtec ERM/F-8) are already defined.

Unless constrained by part availability or required for other reasons, all parts will be SMD and will be selected for minimum footprint area.

# Criterion For Success

Success for our project will be broken into several parts:

- Electronics

- Firmware

- Compatibility

Compatibility success is the easiest to test. The device must be compatible with LASSI specifications for IlliniSat-0 modules. This is verifiable through mechanical measurement, board design review, and integration with other test articles.

Firmware success will be determined by meeting the following criteria:

- The capability to initialize, configure, and read accurate data from the IMU sensors. This is a test of I2C interfacing and will be tested using external test equipment in the LASSI lab. (We have approval to use and access to this equipment)

- The capability to control the output states of the magnetorquer coils. This is a test of GPIO interfacing in firmware.

- The capability to move through different control modes, including: IDLE, FAULT, DETUMBLE, SLEW, and TEST. This will be validated through debugger interfacing, as there is no visual indication system on this device to reduce power waste.

- The capability to self-test and to identify faults. This will be validated through debugger interfacing, as there is no visual indication system on this device to reduce power waste.

- The capability to communicate to other modules on the bus over CAN or RS422 using LASSI-compatible serial protocols. This will be validated through the use of external test equipment designed for IlliniSat-0 module testing.

**Note:** the development of the actual detumble and pointing algorithms that will be used in orbital flight fall outside the reasonable scope of electrical engineering as a field. We are explicitly designing this system such that an aerospace engineering team can develop control algorithms and drop them into our firmware stack for use.

Electronics success will be determined through the successful operation of the other criteria, if the board layout is faulty or a part was poorly selected, the system will not work as intended and will fail other tests. Electronics success will also be validated by measuring the current consumption of the device when operating. The device is required not to exceed 2 amps of total current draw from its dedicated power rail at 3.3 volts. This can be verified by observing the benchtop power supply used to run the device in the lab.