Course and Project Description
ME218C - Smart Product Design Applications
Team design project series on programmable electromechanical systems design. Topics: inter-processor communication, system design with multiple microprocessors, architecture and assembly language programming for the PIC microcontroller, controlling the embedded software tool chain, A/D and D/A techniques, electronic manufacturing technology.
The Challenge: An Even Deadlier Catch!
In three weeks with the impossible budget of $150, design and build a full-functioning boat (Deadlier Catch Harvester - DCH) and companion (Harvester Controller - HC). Groups of DCHs will operate in Terman Pond and cooperatively strive to harvest a crop of virtual crab during a series of crabbing "seasons".
The ocean (i.e. the pond outside of the Terman engineering building) will be populated with crab pots that contain variable amounts of crab. Each season begins with the fleets in the harbor. The crab pots will be in fixed positions in Terman Pond, but their contents and rate of crab accumulation will vary from season to season. The goal of the game is to visit the crab pots, harvest as much crab as possible and return them to the unloading docks within a 5-minute season. If the DCH becomes water-logged, it must jettison its current crab harvest and return to the dry-dock for repair before it can harvest any more crab.
Official project description
