A. Electric Vehicles - REV
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REV (Renewable energy vehicle) is a
Faculty-wide project and looks at finding alternatives to
petrol-based cars. These projects are suitable for
students in Mechanical, Mechatronics, Electrical, Computer
Engineering and Computer Science.
REV has converted/built the following cars:
- REV Eco (2008): Conversion of a 2008 Hyundai Getz to
electric drive using DC technology
- REV Racer (2010) : Conversion of a 2002 Lotus Elise S2
to electric drive using AC technology
- REV SAE-2010: Conversion of an the 2001 UWA Motorsport
car to electric drive (dual motor)
- REV SAE-2013: New EV design from scratch for Formula
SAE Electric (quad wheel-hub motors)
- REVski (2013/14): Conversion of a 2008 Sea-Doo Jet Ski
to Electric Drive
web: theREVproject.com
Projects available:
- Group Project Electric Jet
Ski:
- Mechanical Students: Motor and battery mounts, force
coupling, cooling system, evaluation
- Electric Students: Power and instrumentation
circitry, safety systems
- Computer Students: Motor control, driver information
system
- Group Project Autonomously Driving SAE Electric:
Follow are pre-set race course by using GPS, radar
and imaging sensors for a fully autonomous drive.
This is mainly a software project, requiring good
programming skills, plus interfacing of sensors to an
embedded controller.
- Group Project Formula SAE Electric 2014:
Preparing the FSAE car for competitions in Europe and/or
Australia, implementing intelligent sensor-based motor
control fort he 4 wheel-hub motors. performance
measurements and improvements
- Intelligent EV
Charging:
IT project requiring C/C++ skills to implment a
simulated HEMS (Home Energy Management System), which
allows EV drivers to select their charging preferences
according to an assumed dynamic hourly energy tariff
(minimising costs) or for assumed available solar/wind
green power (maximising environmenatal benefits).
- Driver Information systems
for road-licenced REV Vehicles:
- REV Eco: Programming an EyeBot M6 (Linux) in C/C++
to display vehicle/battery status, drive statistics
and GPS navigation.
- REV Racer: Programming a Windows PC with graphical
user interface to display individual battery status,
drive statistics, GPS navigation, generate artificial
engine sound
- Real-Driving Simulator:
Link the SAE car's controls (steering, brake,
accelerator) to the inputs of a commercial driving
simulator system, so the simulation can be driven from
the real SAE car. Further build a safe roll stand, so
the car can spin its wheels at a safe speed while linked
to the simulator.
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B. Autonomous Groups of Robots
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Our 5 Pioneer AT outdoor robots are equipped with advanced
range and positioning sensors. They can work as a team
through communicating with each other or with one of several
base stations.
Group Project available:
In this project, a group of students will implement a
navigation/exploration task for a group of autonomous
mobile robots, based on the tasks of the MAGIC2010
robotics competition, based on the ROS robot operating
system. These are IT projects and require good C/C++
programming skills. Individual tasks are
- Robot navigation
- Map generation, loop closing (individual robot) and
map fusion (between robots)
- Object detection using laser scanner and camera
- Human-robot interface through console at ground
station, displaying all robot information
This project will conclude with participating in the new
annual Autonomous
Ground Vehicle Competition (AGVC) in Melbourne.
The project tasks will be tailored to match the robot
competition and we expect that our team will participate in
this event.
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C. Multi-Robot
UAVs
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After many years of using autonomous
fixed-wing aircrafts and helicopters, we have now built an
outdoor Hexacopter (6 motors) for autonomous surveillance
flights.
Projects available:
- GPS-based autonomous flight
- Vision-based autonomous flight
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D. Robots &
Embedded Systems
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Projects available:
For mobile robot EyeBot
develop driving routines with object avoidance and object
detection based on image sensor.
- Maze Driving
- Develop a library of motor control and distance
sensor functions
- Based on this develop a maze-following program
- Obstacle Avoidance
- Develop an image-processing library for
robotics using OpenCV
- Based on this implement an obstacle-avoidance
program for optical flow
- Supercomputer on a Chip
- Design a SIMD parallel computer on an FPGA for a
parallel image processing application.
- Define individual parallel processing elements
and test them with Retro
before implementation.
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E. Simulation
Systems
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We have used our EyeSim
simulator for a number of projects in the past. With the
advances in our embedded robot hardware, we now want to
extend to capabilities of the simulator to match our new
hardware. This includes new controller features such as:
- widescreen, color LCD
- touch-screen
- dual (stereo) cameras
- updated RoBIOS
functions
- new functions facilitating repeated operations,
e.g. for running Genetic
Algorithm applications
This project is a software project and requires good
programming skills in C and C++.
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F.
Electric Mines of the Future
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Future mining operations will be fully
electric. This thesis will be a study looking into the
advantages and implications that electrification, automation
and remote control of mining operations will bring. The
thesis should look at the following issues:
- Replacement of Diesel-operated mining vehicle by
electric vehicles
- Gain through reduced ventilation requirements
- Gain through higher reliability, less maintenance and
longer lifetime of electric equipment
- Necessary underground EV charging infrastructure
- Necessary EV fleet charging management
- Optional energy buffering through batteries
- Optional reduction of grid power requirement through
inclusion of renewables,
especially solar PV systems, geothermal, etc.
- Reducing mining personnel through:
- (partial) automation, e.g. of transport trucks,
drilling rigs
- remote control
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G. Robotics Artwork
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In cooperation with a renown Perth sculptor
and artist, we are looking for students who want to work on
interactive robotics art displays for their final year
project. Programming skills are essentials and there are
several projects to choose from. Details are available on
request and student selection will be performed through
interview with the artist.
(Image: interactivearchitecture.org)
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