E&RT Systems Public Page
CSCI P545  Computer Science Department, School of Informatics, Indiana University Wed Apr 8 12:49:23 EDT 2009 [SDJ]

P545 • Embedded & Real-Time Systems •

Information, Announcements, Links
2009 Field Trials   [NWS]
Photo
[HTM] Photo Gallery
[HTM] ERTS Test Field, April 3, 2007
Video
[MP4] (13 Mb) GPS tour, high perspective
[MP4] (14 Mb) GPS tour, ground-level
[MP4] (12 Mb) GPS tour w/ safety-driver
[MP4] (6 Mb) Vehicle walk-around
[AVI] (5.3 Mb) Simulation, GPS following with basic obstacle avoidance
Info
[HTM] IUCS Autonomous Golf Cart Project repository
[PDF] ERTS Architecture [B. Himebaugh, 2008]
[PDF] Poster, SOI Open House, September 2008
[PDF] CVE'09 presentation, October 2008
[PDF] IRVMCS'09 presentation, June 2009
Field Trials
[HTM] Field Trial Safety Rules
[HTM] 2009 Class Project Field Trials, December 7, 2009
[HTM] 2008 Class Project Field Trials, December 17, 2008
[HTM] 2007 Class Project Field Trials, April 27, 2007
About P545
CSCI P545 Catalog Description. Design and implementation of purpose-specific, locally distributed software systems. Models and methods for time-critical applications. Real-time operating systems. Testing, validation, and verification. Safety-critical design. Related topics, such as resiliency, synchronization, sensor fusion, etc. Lecture and laboratory.
Laboratory Description. The course laboratory is a golf car modified for computer control and under development to serve as a research platform. The class project goals include:
  • implementing frameworks for autonomous vehicle navigation, for instance using the Global Positioning System (GPS);
  • implementing frameworks for local tactical guidance, such as obstacle avoidance.
  • exploring embedded-system design methods and configurable architectures in support of advanced robotics research.
  • engaging others working in areas such as vision, artificial intelligence, situated congnition, learning, etc.
ERTS Vehicle Description.
  • Modified EZGO® golf car
  • Computer controlled actuators; all mechanical controls intact
  • On-board LAN of ARM-based nodes operating under QNX (an RTOS)
  • TCP/IP bridge to navigation system; any general purpose host/language may be used.
  • Configurable sensor data netwok; GPS, compass, IMUs, vision, ranging, etc.
Prior course projects and development goals
  • Fall 2009 see Year of ERTS announcement.
  • Fall 2008
    • Conversion from a client/server interface to a file-system interface
    • Re-implementation of GPS following (4 weeks)
    • Obstacle detection using short-range laser range-finder
    • Preliminary obstacle avoidance
  • Fall 2007
    • Refinement of GPS navigation. Path planning. Terrain variation.
    • Obstacle avoidance. Stereo-visual feature extraction; Sonar "whiskers"; Other ranging devices.
    • Architecture. Sensor platform/networking. On-board LAN. Scheme API.
  • Spring 2007
    • System Development & Testing. Synchronous communication infrastructure;
    • Basic GPS navigation. Point-to-point waypoint following; Turning maneuvers; Situation-based speed control.