Final presentation ece

ECE 4006 Final Presentation

Group Members – John Sellers

- Doug Messick

- Kelvin Bunn

- Sean James

Group Name: Altera NIOS Robot Group

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Georgia Institute of Technology

Project Overview

The design of this project uses the Altera NIOS board as a robot controller. The robot used in this project is the AmigoBot, which contains 8 sonar sensors. The main function of the robot will be to track moving objects and object avoidance.


Block Diagram


Project Approach

-Design RISC Processor

-Communication with the Nios board

-Interface Nios Board with the AmigoBot

-Establish preliminary Control of AmigoBot

-Finalize AmigoBot functionality


Major Project Milestones

C-program Template

-Established on June 29, 2002

-Initially used to program the UART of the Nios board

-Continually updated as source code for the project



Communication with the Nios board


-Pre-defined UART commands were used to program the Nios Board

-Able to download and communicate functions



Communication with the AmigoBot


-C-program code used to send synchronization packets to open communication

-Packets contained a header, a comand, and a checksum value



Checksum Calculation


-Initial Code provided did not compute the proper checksum

-Values included in the checksum are the command, command type, and command value



Control of the AmigoBot


-Determined the protocol of the Server Information Packet (SIP)

-SIP packets controlling synchronization and motor control were created



Receiving Data from the AmigoBot


-Acquired a serial cable void of a transmit pin

-Purchased a serial sniffer program to analyze information returned from the AmigoBot


Project Progress

-Communication established with the Nios board and the AmigoBot

-Established Control of the AmigoBot

-Currently processing sonor information and updating the sonor algorithm


ECE 4006 Project Proposal and Presentation

Tasks Duration Who 14 21 28 4 11 18 25 2 9 16 23

Obtain Hardware required for the design project 1w group

Run the Altera NIOS Embedded Processor Tutorial (Getting Started) and verify working board and computer system.

1w group

Run the Altera Tutorial (large tutorial manual) 1w group

Design the RISC processor 1w group

Transmit/receive data from the NIOS serial port 2w

Interface NIOS serial port with the AmigoBot 2w

Preliminary control of AmiboBot by the NIOS board 2w

Final functionality of the AmigoBot - Ready for Demo. 2w

Final Presentation and Report 1w group

May June July

Next Steps

-Continue to update the Algorithm that processes the sonor information

-Provide a working demonstration of the AmigoBot

-Complete the goals outlined in the objective of the project


QUESTIONS