Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
84 AutoServe (Automated Room Service Bot)
 Ethan Jiang
Johan Martinez
Nikhil Vishnoi
 Po-Jen Ko design_document1.pdf
final_paper1.pdf
presentation1.pdf
proposal1.pdf
video
**AutoServe (Automated Room Service Bot)**

**Team Members:**
- Nikhil Vishnoi (nikhilv4)
- Ethan Jiang (ethanj4)
- Johan Martinez (jmart454)

**Problem**

In hotels, apartments, and dormitories, guests or residents often request small amenities such as snacks, toiletries, chargers and more. Fulfilling these requests often requires manual labor, such as a staff member traveling long distances across hallways and between floors which is time-consuming, inefficient, and labor intensive. While some automated delivery robots exist, commercial solutions are extremely expensive, and often impractical for smaller deployments or retrofitting existing buildings. There is a need for an affordable yet flexible indoor delivery system capable of autonomously transporting small items within multi floor buildings while operating within existing infrastructure constraints.

**Solution**

We propose a small autonomous indoor delivery robot capable of transporting items between locations in a multi-floor building such as a hotel. The robot will navigate hallways autonomously and use an elevator to travel between floors, allowing it to deliver items from a central base location such as the hotel lobby snack bar to a specified destination room. The robot will move autonomously and be monitored wirelessly by staff through a remote UI that can display status updates on deliveries, or when the robot is ready in the elevator to be transported by hotel staff calling the elevator from the lobby. Elevator actuation is assumed to be externally triggered by the building as is most common in real hotels, while the robot will autonomously handle entering, riding, and exiting the elevator at the correct floor with sensor detection. This design choice reflects realistic constraints of existing building logistics while allowing the project to focus on autonomous navigation, system integration, and practicality.
An ESP32-based controller located on the central unit and the navigation unit will coordinate wireless connection between each other with the integrated Wi-Fi module. We would also incorporate graphed routes that are optimized for avoiding obstacles, with a proximity sensor to detect obstacles such as people and send the appropriate warnings. Items will be transported in a box with a rfid lock that can only be opened by residents such as with a hotel keycard or something of similar nature. This system would reduce staff workload, improve response time for guests, and demonstrate how embedded robotic platforms can be useful to automate common but repetitive manual logistics tasks.


**Subsystem 1: Microcontroller Unit**

- Two ESP microcontrollers will be used, one for the Central Base Unit and one for the actual Robot Navigation Unit.
- Both microcontrollers will communicate with each other using their integrated Wifi connection modules with transmitters and receivers.

**Subsystem 2: Robot Base Unit**

- Will have USB keyboard input (DS_FT312D) and Display to allow user input commands to robot
- Display (NHD-0216KZW-AB5) will show a UI for user to see robot status (charge, where it thinks it is, connection)

**Subsystem 3: Robot Unit**

- 2 Stepper motors (17ME15-1504S) to accurately move robot with predetermined distances.
- Will be 3D printed or machined with the machine shop
- Motors will be driven using motor driver (A4988SETTR-T) with MCU
- Display (NHD-0216KZW-AB5) for robot unit to communicate with nearby people

**Subsystem 4: Navigation and Sensing**
- Position Tracking sensor (TLV493DA1B6HTSA2) to track x,y,z motion data of robot. Actual map data and floor data will be hardcoded into the robot; this data will be used to make sure that stepper motors are moving correctly.
- Proximity sensors (TSSP40) for MCU to tell when it is being blocked by an obstacle and if it is boxed in it will communicate with the Base Unit for help.

**Subsystem 5: Robot Charging Station**
- The robot will have battery charge detection and will be able to inform the central base Unit when it is low on power.
- When delivery is completed and robot is done working it will dock into a base charging station that will flow a reverse current into the Lithium Ion batteries using a charge management controller (MCP73811).

**Subsystem 6: Security Subsystem**
- RFID based lock system for storing delivered items that opens for residents (Either from base station or with smart lock)

**Criteria for Success**
- The central base station can send commands to the navigational robot unit which is able to use predefined data to go to programmed/stored locations accurately.
- The navigational unit is able to identify its location, calculate the route to its next destination, and then move precisely towards it and stop correctly.
- Robot unit can avoid obstacles and send back status messages to the central base station indicators.
- The robot unit can operate through the elevator and can tell when it is at the right floor and when to exit.

Illini Voyager

Cameron Jones, Christopher Xu

Featured Project

# Illini Voyager

Team Members:

- Christopher Xu (cyx3)

- Cameron Jones (ccj4)

# Problem

Weather balloons are commonly used to collect meteorological data, such as temperature, pressure, humidity, and wind velocity at different layers of the atmosphere. These data are key components of today’s best predictive weather models, and we rely on the constant launch of radiosondes to meet this need. Most weather balloons cannot control their altitude and direction of travel, but if they could, we would be able to collect data from specific regions of the atmosphere, avoid commercial airspaces, increase range and duration of flights by optimizing position relative to weather forecasts, and avoid pollution from constant launches. A long endurance balloon platform also uniquely enables the performance of interesting payloads, such as the detection of high energy particles over the Antarctic, in situ measurements of high-altitude weather phenomena in remote locations, and radiation testing of electronic components. Since nearly all weather balloons flown today lack the control capability to make this possible, we are presented with an interesting engineering challenge with a significant payoff.

# Solution

We aim to solve this problem through the use of an automated venting and ballast system, which can modulate the balloon’s buoyancy to achieve a target altitude. Given accurate GPS positioning and modeling of the jetstream, we can fly at certain altitudes to navigate the winds of the upper atmosphere. The venting will be performed by an actuator fixed to the neck of the balloon, and the ballast drops will consist of small, biodegradable BBs, which pose no threat to anything below the balloon. Similar existing solutions, particularly the Stanford Valbal project, have had significant success with their long endurance launches. We are seeking to improve upon their endurance by increasing longevity from a power consumption and recharging standpoint, implementing a more capable altitude control algorithm which minimizes helium and ballast expenditures, and optimizing mechanisms to increase ballast capacity. With altitude control, the balloon has access to winds going in different directions at different layers in the atmosphere, making it possible to roughly adjust its horizontal trajectory and collect data from multiple regions in one flight.

# Solution Components

## Vent Valve and Cut-down (Mechanical)

A servo actuates a valve that allows helium to exit the balloon, decreasing the lift. The valve must allow enough flow when open to slow the initial ascent of the balloon at the cruising altitude, yet create a tight seal when closed. The same servo will also be able to detach or cut down the balloon in case we need to end the flight early. A parachute will deploy under free fall.

## Ballast Dropper (Mechanical)

A small DC motor spins a wheel to drop [biodegradable BBs](https://www.amazon.com/Force-Premium-Biodegradable-Airsoft-Ammo-20/dp/B08SHJ7LWC/). As the total weight of the system decreases, the balloon will gain altitude. This mechanism must drop BBs at a consistent weight and operate for long durations without jamming or have a method of detecting the jams and running an unjamming sequence.

## Power Subsystem (Electrical)

The entire system will be powered by a few lightweight rechargeable batteries (such as 18650). A battery protection system (such as BQ294x) will have an undervoltage and overvoltage cutoff to ensure safe voltages on the cells during charge and discharge.

## Control Subsystem (Electrical)

An STM32 microcontroller will serve as our flight computer and has the responsibility for commanding actuators, collecting data, and managing communications back to our ground console. We’ll likely use an internal watchdog timer to recover from system faults. On the same board, we’ll have GPS, pressure, temperature, and humidity sensors to determine how to actuate the vent valve or ballast.

## Communication Subsystem (Electrical)

The microcontroller will communicate via serial to the satellite modem (Iridium 9603N), sending small packets back to us on the ground with a minimum frequency of once per hour. There will also be a LED beacon visible up to 5 miles at night to meet regulations. We have read through the FAA part 101 regulations and believe our system meets all requirements to enable a safe, legal, and ethical balloon flight.

## Ground Subsystem (Software)

We will maintain a web server which will receive location reports and other data packets from our balloon while it is in flight. This piece of software will also allow us to schedule commands, respond to error conditions, and adjust the control algorithm while in flight.

# Criterion For Success

We aim to launch the balloon a week before the demo date. At the demo, we will present any data collected from the launch, as well as an identical version of the avionics board showing its functionality. A quantitative goal for the balloon is to survive 24 hours in the air, collect data for that whole period, and report it back via the satellite modem.

![Block diagram](https://i.imgur.com/0yazJTu.png)