Mechatronics Design Association

The Mechatronics Design Association (MDA) is a student association at the University of Toronto. Founded in November 2004, the MDA is composed of many students from various programmes at the University of Toronto. Due to the intrinsic subject of the MDA, engineering students make up the majority of the members.

The Students

All students studying at the University of Toronto are invited to join the Mechatronics Design Association. There were around 30 active members during the 2005-2006 academic year, and even more are expected to join in the following years. The association encourages first year students to participate, as the upper year students managing the project spend significant time and effort into teaching and tutoring new members.

Objective

The MDA is participating in a competition of fully autonomous underwater vehicles in San Diego. This competition is hosted by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI). Many universities compete with their designs every summer against a certain amount of various tasks defined by AUVSI. The specifications of the obstacles and tasks for the robots are defined towards the end of the academic year, leaving a limited time for task-specific development and tuning.

Sub-systems

The association is divided into the following sub-systems:

• Battery
• Camera
• Frame and Thrusters
• Navigation
• Programming
• Sonar
• Vision

Battery

The power supply for the submarine is developed by this sub-system. All power required by the submarine is supplied by the power sources chosen and implemented by this sub-system

Camera

The camera sub-system is the "eyes" of the robot. Images taken very frequently from an underwater camera is processed and analyzed continuously to provide the submarine with ample visual input. Whatever the task requires (finding a red box, rotating around a green pipe, etc.), the visual data to accomplish it is the responsibiliy of this sub-system. Also, complex algorithms to analyze the data acquired is another task this sub-system handles.

Frame and Thrusters

The actual structural frame of the design and the thrusters are the main parts of the submarine this sub-system looks into. The frame is generated using Computer Aided Design, and is tested thoroughly both in virtual and physical environments. The choice of thrusters also is vital for the design, as navigation of the submarine is highly dependent on the thrusters.

Navigation

The navigation sub-system works to achieve full 3D movement in water with reasonable precision. This sub-system is a standalone module under the direct command of the main PC of the submarine and provides all of the directions for the set of 5 thrusters. Navigation is perhaps the most fundamental sub-system of the submarine, since without a functional navigation system, all output from other sub-systems would be rendered useless.

Programming

This sub-section is responsible for the programming of the main PC (High Level Programming) controlling the robot, alongside many MCU's (Low Level Programming). The co-ordination of all the sub-systems via the main PC, is a critical function for the submarine.

Sonar

The sonar sub-system is the "ears" of the robot. Detecting sound underwater is achieved via hydrophones. The main function of this sub-system is to determine where a certain sound is coming from, relative to the submarine. This data would then be used for various task such as navigating towards a sound source or rotating around a certain sound source.

Vision

The vision subsystem is the other mission-oriented sensory system besides sonar. Using only two basic webcams, the vision subsystem will implement their algorithms on the main computer and have the capability of detecting edges (lines) and localizing coloured spots. These functions are then constructed into a higher level architecture that creates complex task directives to be completed by the navigation.

External links

• MDA website
• AUVSI Competition