Ed's RV Ed-Splorer

The Problem: Building a smart device for Ed's RV

Our team was tasked with to designing and building a device that semi-automates one key aspect of life in a motor home. We chose to automate a spotlight to illuminate Ed's surroundings each time he arrives at a new destination! In this particular case, he has arrived at Stanford's campus. Since he is only passing through to fill up on gas, there is only a limited time to explore all of Stanford's most famous sites! 

The device begins in an idle mode, awaiting a hand wave from Ed to begin. Once he waves his hand over the spotlight control module, the device enters welcome mode and allows adjustment of spotlight brightness. Remember, the brighter the spotlight is, the easier it will be to explore!

After setting the brightness, Ed presses the joystick and begins exploring. The joystick controls spotlight velocity in two degrees of freedom: pitch and yaw. Moving the stick east-west will cause yaw motion, while moving north-south will cause pitch. Ed must explore in a set order, following the lit-up monuments until all have been explored with the spotlight. Each Stanford monument will light up individually, moving to the next as soon as each monument is hit with the beam of the spotlight. If Ed is too slow in his exploration, an LED display will nudge him to continue with a "Speed up!" message. Ed's exploration concludes one of three ways: Successful exploration of all six Stanford monuments, incomplete exploration of campus, or timeout (if Ed stays Idle for longer than 20 seconds). 

Requirements:

• At least 3 user inputs, including one analog, one digital, one non-contact input

  • We used a joystick (analog), push buttons (digital), and an IR sensor (non-contact)

• Haptic/audio/tactile user feedback

  • We used a piezo buzzer to signal joystick limits and winning/losing the spotlight game

• A creative display indicating the passage of time throughout device operation, including a timeout triggered after 20 seconds of user inaction

  • Ed's servo-powered gas tank slowly fills throughout operation, indicating time passage

• The device must fit in a 50cm x 50cm x 100cm area

  • Ed's RV Ed-Splorer measures just under 45cm x 45cm x 45cm