Self-Guided Micro Vehicle: An Autonomous Vehicle with GPS Navigation and 802.11b Communications

To facilitate the learning of automatic navigation systems by engineering students an easy to obtain platform is useful. The topic of this thesis is the design and implementation of a basic self-guided vehicle that can be programmed and expanded by anyone possessing basic experience with the C programming language. The Self-Guided Micro Vehicle, (SGMV), uses off-the-shelf easy to obtain parts such as a toy R/C truck and the Handyboard to maximize availability of this technology to students. This thesis divides the SGMV design process by functionality. It starts by documenting the locomotion system, which was a modified R/C toy truck. Next, it describes the Microcontroller board and the Handyboard. Then it highlights the programming language, Interactive C, which makes multitasking systems easy for beginners. The sensor system was comprised of a GPS receiver, a solid state electronic compass and a wireless communications system. Finally, the thesis documents the program code necessary for successful navigation and explains the verification process, where the SGMV was required to follow a set of waypoints, which were defined by latitude-longitude coordinates