The Team SwarmUS is a team of nine engineering students from the University of Sherbrooke at the end of their bachelor diploma whose graduation is scheduled for December 2021. SwarmUS has multidisciplinary expertise in engineering, since its members come from computer, electrical and robotics engineering.The Project The project aims to establish an open software and hardware platform (respectively Hivemind and Hiveboard) allowing the implementation of a robotic swarm doing simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM)[1] from heterogeneous robots and Android smartphones. Android phones can be used as an augmented reality interface to view the shared map produced and as a control interface for the robotic swarm. This technological breakthrough is taking place during a major engineering design project and will be presented at the MegaGÉNIALE Expo 2021. The project is academic in nature and will be used by a client at 3IT[2] in the robotics research group IntRoLab[3].What is the MégaGÉNIALE Expo? The MégaGÉNIALE Expo is the largest exhibition of university engineering projects in Canada. It is a unique opportunity to come and discover the work of graduates in each of the fields of engineering, namely: building, civil, chemical, biotechnology, electrical, computer, mechanical and robotics. The event attracts approximately 4,000 people annually. For more information on the event and photos of the event from previous years, visit the following page: https://www.MégaGÉNIALEe.usherbrooke.ca/.[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simultaneous_localization_and_mapping[2] https://www.usherbrooke.ca/3it/en/[3] https://introlab.3it.usherbrooke.ca/mediawiki-introlab/index.php/Main_Page (French only)Robotics sectionPioneer 2DX robotsThe SwarmUS team was given the task to update two old Pioneer 2DX that was unused from its client’s lab (IntRoLab). These robots will not only be given back to the client, but they will also serve as bench tests to test our swarm platform. Since the electronics and the software of these robots were obsolete, a full upgrade of this robot was needed and only the chasiss and the motors were kept.PowerThe robots are powered by a 12V GOOLOO GP37-Plus LiPo battery. Theses batteries have some internal protections and an integrated charger, thus simplifying the design around the robot’s power source. However, an additional under voltage protection was needed to prevent the robot from draining the battery below the voltage limit of the LiPo cells. Under voltage lockout boardA custom PCB that contains an under-voltage lockout (UVLO) and a voltage monitoring circuits was then designed by the team. This solution emits a high pitch sound whenever the voltage drops below a selected threshold and opens the main power relay under another lower threshold. Power distributionThe power tree is divided in 3 main parts: the 12V main power, the 12V motors’ power and the 5V computer’s power. A main relay controlled by a toggle switch and the UVLO board connects the battery to the 12V main power which, in return, gives power to a 5V@5A regulator and to another relay that controls the motors’ power. The motors’ relay is controlled by a red mushroom button to easily cut off the 12V power to the motors in an emergency case. The 5V regulator powers the main computer and all the robot sensors. Sensors, computer and motor controllerThe robot brain is a Raspberry Pi 4 4GB that runs on Linux 20.04.1 LTS. To sense its environment, the robot is equipped with a RPLidar A2M8 to visualize obstacles all around it and is equipped with a Realsense D435i or a Realsense D455, depending on the robot, to have visual and depth information of the scene afront of it. In addition to the sensors, a RoboClaw 2x60A from BasicMicro is used as the motor controller since it has built-in protections, PID controls and quadrature encoder reading features. The motor controller and all the sensors are connected to the Rasberry Pi via USB. Furthermore, the Hiveboard and the BeeBoards are integrated into the robot and are connected though Ethernet to the Raspberry Pi to give the robots the necessary hardware to join a swarm.Mechanical modificationsThe electronic components and the computer are maintained by wooden plates built with laser cutting technology to have the perfect fit in the narrow interior of the robot. The sensors’ supports and side panels of the robot were 3D printed to give us more flexibility in the design process.Robot’s softwareThe Raspberry Pi runs all the robot’s software inside the ROS (Robot Operating System) middleware. With the help of sensors, a navigation stack and RTAB-Map, the robot can move in its environment while mapping it and localizing itself in it. Additional ROS packages were made by the team to connect the ROS environment to the HiveMind running on the HiveBoard to let the swarm behaviors control the robot.Map produced by one of our robot The Hardware sectionThe following section will present in detail the 3 PCBs of the SwarmUS project:· The HiveSight: Test platfrom for the Decawave Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) integrated circuit (IC) the DW1000· The Hiveboard : The central board of the last iteration· The BeeBoard : The UWB ‘’sensor’’The HiveSightAs mentioned, the HiveSight was a test platform for the team. It confirmed that the team could do a functioning PCB (from design to testing) with the facilities we had access to. It was also a test platform for the UWB technology. Let us go over the board:Protection: function as an over-voltage, over-current and polarity inversionUSB: The USB IC opens a COM port for debugging purpose. It is connected to the u-USB port3V3&1V8 Gen: On board 3v3 and 1v8 power rail generation. The 1.8V comes from the 3.3V rail. All the components on the board are using the 3.3V rail. Only the Decawave IC DW1000 is using the 1.8V power rail. IMU: Inertial measurement unitWROOM reset: Physical button of the ESP32-WROOM (which is on the bottom side of the PCB) The ESP32-WROOM is a Wi-Fi IC.Flash 32k: 32 Kb flash memory. Used by our custom solution of the ESP32.ESP32: custom implementation of the ESP32 (Wi-Fi IC). This implementation was used to make a comparison between our custom implementation and the WROOM IC.CLK Gen: Generate the 38.4MHz clock for the DW1000s. Also includes an synchronisation signal for both the DW1000.DW1000: Ultra-wide Band IC. Used to localize other HiveSight in distance and angle. Each DW100 has 4 LEDs for debugging purpose.Our implementation of the DW1000s is based off the white papers published by decawave (https://www.decawave.com/application-notes/) and is being tested by our team as I write theses lines. However, we did manage to catch some errors in our design.The 5V power rail can come from 2 different places: · From the green connector at the top left· From the u-USB connectorFurthermore, the 3.3V source can come from the 3V3 rail or be supplied by the Nucleo. The Hivesight can also supply 5V or 3.3V to a Nucleo. However, when testing our design, we noticed that when the Nucleo supplied the 3V3 voltage to the HveSight, it was flashing an over-current warning. We recommend using a separate (as in the green connector/u-USB connector) power supply for the HiveSight.The SPI communication between the HiveSight and the Nucleo is a bit deficient, as we did not treat the SPI lines correctly while routing (too much top to bottom changes) and the ground loop is not the smallest possible. We did not connect the ground of every connector of the HiveSight correctly which is slowing the SPI bus. The maximum speed of the bus we could do was 1Mbit/s of data.The USB line to the COM port IC has switched plus and minus data lines, resulting in an error in the COM port. We recommend to either change the design or putting the data line in the correct order by removing the ESD protection and solder some wire across. In our implementation, that is the approach we used and put hot glue on top to prevent accidental disconnection.Also, the IMU was never installed on our version because the footprint lacked the paste opening, therefore no solder was present, and the part was never connected to the board. This simple mistake will be fixed in the next implementation: The Hiveboard.The HiveSight was designed to be used with the STM32F429ZIT Nucleo (despite the silk screen mentioning STM32F426, another mistake from our part). All the files (schematic, BOM, PCB, Gerbers) are in the Github link. The HiveBoard & the BeeBoardThe HiveBoard is the next implementation of the project. It will consist of:· An central MCU (STM32H7) · 6 USB-C channels containingo An SPIo A Clock signal (38.4MHz)o A sync signalo Interrupt request (IRQ) (Receive)o Chip select (nCS) (sending)o Reset (sending)· A 38.4 MHz Crystal · A WROOM ESP32 for Wi-Fi communication· Redriving ICs for LVDS and LVCMOS signals· An FT4232 FTDI debug IC· A u-USB for debugging purpose.· An ethernet port to transfer the information to the Robot computer.· An IMUThe HiveBoard is the motherboard for distributing the clock to the 6 USB-C channels and Syncing all the clocks together. Also, it hoards the information sent by the BeeBoards. The Beeboard are 5x7 cm board hosting a single DW1000, an antenna, redriving circuits and switches in order to detect the USB-C polarity. Connected to a HiveBoard channel, the Beeboard sends an IRQ to the Hiveboard, meaning it has information. The Hiveboard then initiate the SPI transaction to retrieve this information and calculates the distance and the angle of the signal received. The HiveBoard and the Beeboard are both in the development stage. We do not have any 3D model now, but it will be updated in the next weeks. Stay tuned on the GitHub for the updates.The software sideAs for the software part of our project, the development is guided by the three fundamental requirements of swarm robotic, which are the following:· Agents in the swarm must have the ability to exchange data with each other, on 1 to 1 basis (unicast) as well as 1 to many (broadcast)· Agents in in the swarm must be able to locate other neighboring agents with reference to themselves.· Agents in the swarm are controlled by a shared intelligence which takes decisions for the swarm based on the information supplied by the agents constituting the swarm.The goal of our project is to deliver a platform that will be able to support those features and expose them for any system. To test this, we will be using our platform alongside an existing robot based on a Raspberry-Pi (See robotics section). The following figure present each component of our architecture, which will be detailed in the following sections:The HiveBoard and its firmware, the HiveMindThe HiveMind is the core of our system and therefore handles the three requirements of the swarm exposed earlier. It is based on a STM32 processor which runs a firmware that interfaces further hardware components (like the BeeBoard) as well as running the Swarm Intelligence. The HiveMind makes all the calculation to translate the data received from the BeeBoard into an actual position associated with a robot. As for the Swarm Intelligence, it is based on Buzz, a programming language dedicated to programming swarms of robots (https://the.swarming.buzz/wiki/doku.php?id=start ). This Buzz script is runs internally in a virtual machine in the firmware inside all HiveBoards, relying on the data exchanged on the network to takes decisions. Alongside the STM32, an ESP32 is connected via SPI and runs its own firmware, responsible of handling the Wi-Fi connectivity and data exchange across the network. Furthermore, this board exposes two choices of interface to communicate to the robot, either via ethernet or USB.The Host RobotThe host robot is a robot in which we connect a HiveBoard. The core system component that we develop is the bridge. It handles the command sent by the Swarm Intelligence to the robot, like executing a movement or internal sharing data. The rest of its feature is on a per use-case basis. In our case, the goal is to perform a mapping of the environment to share across the swarm, with the use of a camera, a lidar and RTAB-map, the mapping software. The goal of our development on the host robot is to show the potential of our platform and swarm robotics.The Augmented Reality Android AppAlongside the swarm of robots, we are also developing an android application to be able to monitor the state of the swarm and command it. To better visualize the state of the swarm and distinguish robots from one another, the app will feature Augmented Reality to add visual cues on robots as well as take commands, like setting a waypoint in the environment to get to. To interact with the robots and send commands, the Android device will be connected to an HiveBoard with a USB connection also delivering power to the board. However, the Android device will not be able to be located in space with our BeeBoards, as our architecture only supports 2D positioning on the Android device will be significantly higher from the ground, but it will be able to have an idea of the position of robots with the use of April Tags, which are specialized Qr codes to identify robots, and evaluate their relative position.For more details:https://github.com/SwarmUS Support from PCBWay would mean a lot to us. It would lightened the enormous financial pressure we are under. With the sudden rarity of electronic components, our BOM upped its cost, and we are afraid it might affect the functionality of the HiveBoard (ie, 3 channels instead of six) and force us to choose unfit component for our application. We would be proud to represent PCBWay as a major partner at the MÉGAGéniale Expo in December 2021!

About the team:UBC Unmanned Aircraft Systems is a Canadian Student design team focusing on innovating the unmanned aerospace industry. Students from diverse faculties such as Engineering, Arts, Science and Business all dedicate up to 30 hours a week to learning, designing, manufacturing and testing. Furthermore, we participate in a national competition, USC-STC Student UAS competition, and international competition, AUVSI SUAS.This year our team aims to design a new aircraft called “The Vulture”, and build package delivery systems to be used for the delivery of medical and commercial packages for our two competitions. Our software team also aims to develop ground control software services, dynamic obstacle avoidance, and image processing systems. Furthermore, we place second in Phase 1 of the USC-STC Student UAS 2021 competition for our design paper.Our Projects:VultureVulture is our flagship drone intended to fly completely autonomously at the AUVSI SUAS 2021 competition. The aircraft is capable of flying over waypoints, deploying the Wall-E rover, identifying objects on the ground and mapping a survey area. The multirotor can lift payloads up to 1.5kg and has a flight range of over 12 kilometres, with a top speed of 90km/h.WallEWallE is a two-wheeled autonomous rover intended to deliver a water bottle for the AUVSI SUAS Competition. The rover is dropped from our multirotor from a height of 100ft with a winch mechanism. ScorpionScorpion is a tread based rover intended to carry medical packages for the USC-STC Student UAS competition. The rover uses an fpv camera to scan QR codes to determine the correct packages to pick up and their respective destination. The rover integrates with a net on our multirotor and is flown from a depot (pick up point) to a clinic (delivery location).UAS PCB DesignVulture: Power Distribution Board (PDB)Our Power Distribution Board is an integral part of functionality for our drones. This year, we would like to shift from using a premade PDB to designing our own. It needs to convert power from a 12S - 2P LiPo battery to 5V/5A and 12V/5A outputs, in order to power numerous onboard systems such as Pixhawk flight controllers, sensors, microcontrollers and radio telemetry systems. Furthermore, we need to measure the voltage and current being supplied from the batteries and power electronic speed circuits for the motors. With our demanding requirements, we need to be able to pull up to 250A at 50V from our batteries through the board! Shown above is our completed PDB design. It has 6 layers in total. There will be 2oz copper on the outer layers and 6oz copper on the inner layers. We have ensured that our board is able to carry up to 250A by correctly choosing trace width/spacing.PCBWay has been very helpful in our design for this board. Earlier this year, we designed and ordered 2 prototype boards from PCBWay for testing. The online quote system is efficient and the website interface is intuitive. We were very happy with the end result and would like to order our final board from PCBWay as well. WallE Rover PCBThe WALL-E PCB was designed to be a central hub for the navigation and control systems of an autonomous waypoint finding rover. The PCB is designed to be a streamlined method for managing the rover's electrical requirements by replacing bulky external wires with carefully placed internal traces. Another benefit of the PCB is its modularity and ease of repair. In the case of a component becoming damaged, it can easily be replaced with a new one through basic desoldering and soldering techniques. Another benefit of the PCB is that it eliminates the risk of components becoming disconnected by securing them with solder flux. As the rover will be lowered by a winch from a drone and drives through rugged terrain, any unsecured electrical components are likely to disconnect which is an issue the PCB prevents. Overall, from controlling the motors to relaying GPS data, this PCB is an efficient and modular way of managing the electrical requirements of an autonomous rover.WallE Winch PCBThe main purpose of the Winch PCB is to control the descent of our AUVSI rover using a PID control loop. The PCB board takes in 12 and 5 V to power all the components. Indicator LEDs are incorporated to assist with debugging any power issues. An Arduino Nano is used to carry out the PID control with the required speed information collected by the encoder. To maintain a constant rover decent speed a linear actuator pulls a string wrapped around the winch shaft as instructed by the PID control. Friction in the system changes based on how tight the string is pulled which is how the shaft speed is controlled. The rover line is reeled back to the drone using an ESC controlled DC motor. A limit switch is used to stop the motor once the carabiner at the end of the line has reached the drone. Screw-in terminals are used to secure components onto the board because they offer the convenience of easily swapping out components during our competition.Scorpion Rover PCBThe PCB for Scorpion features a compact integration of all the components needed for Scorpion to function. Using the PCB Scorpion’s wiring becomes significantly more organized and we are able to cut the weight of the rover down considerably. It includes headers for the rover’s servo’s and a built in motor driver. The board also includes a voltage regulator to step down the 12V battery voltage to 5V for the onboard arduino nano and other 5V components. In return for any sponsorship you offer us, we can offer you brand exposure across our social media pages. We have over 1000 followers - all interested in engineering. Thank you for your time in considering our request. Any assistance PCBWay could provide us would be greatly appreciated.For more information about UBC UAS, please visit ubcuas.com or check our social media @UBC UAS https://www.unmannedsystems.ca/home/students/student-competition-details/

About Us:Team A.R.E.S. (Automated Rover using Embedded Systems) is a group of thirty highly motivated science enthusiasts from Netaji Subhas University Technology. At ARES, we like to think out-of-the-box to formulate, design and build a rover that can be used for the early exploration of Mars. We aim to innovate in the field of rover technology with conscientious hard work and determination. As a team, our goal is to perform our best in global competitions and bring about a change in the current technology with effective and innovative ideas.Project Description:Our rover Pegasus is an autonomous rover controlled by Raspberry Pi 3B+ and Jetson Xavier. The rover systems are mounted on a space frame chassis outfitted which provide protection from external intrusion with a four wheel trailing and leading arm suspension system. Four 24V Brushed Geared DC motors form the propulsion system. High torque brushed DC motors (Tokushu Denso 9K24F) have been used for rover propulsion. Optical wheel encoders on each motor allow for precise position feedback control. The propulsion motors are controlled by raspberry pi GPIO pins. The science sensor modules consist of DHT11 (for air humidity), BMP180 (atmospheric pressure and temperature) , Ammonia and Methane sensor, pH and Moisture sensor and spectrometer covering the UV and visible range ( 250nm - 750nm) for spectral analysis of soil samples along with a microscope camera for soil texture analysis has also been implemented. Communication system consists of 2.4GHz (Control signals) and 5.8GHz (video streaming ) spectrum.The Science hub is controlled by arduino nano using a USB cable. The arduino nano is also used to change the color between modes (blue for manual and red for autonomous). We have used a GPS module and a Razor IMU MPU-9250 for both tracking during manual propulsion as well as calculating odometry during autonomous mode. Communication of all the sensor data to the base station is done using web sockets. We have developed several GUIs for easy control and maneuverability. There is a GUI for propulsion, arm control as well as for the entire science hub.The image below shows our power module:It delivers a constant voltage or constant current supply that can deliver up to 150W of power with some features like current limiting (in-case of short circuit).Battery management system:Li-io / Li-po Battery management system with over-charge and over-discharge protection, temperature monitoring, along with short-circuit protection. Capable of handling up to 8S and is based on a fully analog design for faster response and better precision.Motor Driver:Given below is a low-Cost Motor Driver capable of delivering up to 200W and fast response time for better motor control.Words to PCBWay:Support from PCBWay would be an enormous help towards reaching our goal in time! Our mission requires financial support, which is often a problem for students like us. For this reason we decided to consider PCBWay as our manufacturer, thanks to its possibility to provide us a high quality service while ensuring a small production time with a favourable price.