American soldiers lay their lives on the line every day in an attempt to preserve the American way of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. As development and design of this project began, the safety of allied troops was at the forefront of group 13's priorities. It was determined that the safety of allied troops can be assured by means of increasing the distance between hostile and allied soldiers. The concept of increasing safety in hostile territory was difficult to approach as the number of possible tactical situations varies based on the current environment. After conducting an in-depth study of state-of-the-art military targeting systems, one possible solution was conceived. Group 13’s proposed solution, dubbed “GPS and Targeting Pod” builds off of and improves the Northrop Grumman “NGHTS targeting system that is currently under development. The proposed solution consisted of four separate, but equally important subsystems: Structure, Power Delivery, Embedded Hardware, and Software. Each of the subsystems was assigned a group leader who was responsible for communicating thoughts and ideas pertaining to the design, as well as approach to better accomplish timely completion of assigned tasks. The individual subsystem leaders were charged with approaching this project aggressively and were expected to surpass all expectations set forth by the project sponsor. That being said, as the semester progressed many milestones and achievements were reached by each of the subsystem teams.
The structural subsystem, led by Jacob Baker completed the design and fabrication of a tank chassis, as well as a controller housing. The tank chassis is responsible for safely housing the internal components of the tank, whereas the controller housing is responsible for housing the components of the controller and allowing for a comfortable grip during operation. Each of the two individual housings were designed by Jacob using SolidWorks and manufactured using additive manufacturing techniques. The tank chassis consists of multiple components and was assembled using various hardware to ensure the structural integrity and stability during operation.
The Power Delivery subsystem, led by William Yerkes completed the design and fabrication of battery management systems that are specifically made to optimize the power storage and consumption of the tank and the controller. These battery management systems were designed using kiCAD and Altium, industry standard PCB design software, and were milled, and soldered by Will himself. The intricacies involved in these battery management boards ensure that the targeting pod will not suffer from lack of power while in the line of duty.
The Embedded Hardware subsystem, led by Rosti Raviv completed the successful implementation of each individual component responsible for the movement of the tank and the communication between the tank and the controller. In addition to the successful implementation of each component Rosti also personally designed a motor driver PCB that drastically reduced the amount of space required for the DC motor drivers and increased the efficiency of the tank tread system ensuring that the tank will be capable of movement in harsh terrain.
The Software Subsystem, lead by both Angelo Alies and Ava Perrone successfully completed the code that is solely responsible for the real time video stream with little to no delay, the communication between the controller and the tank, as well as the successful extrapolation of GPS coordinates. The complexities of the code used in the GPS and targeting pod are a key example of how Angelo and Ava have greatly surpassed the expectations of not only the project sponsor, but also each individual member of the team. Their hard work and dedication to producing state-of-the-art software ensure that the tank will not malfunction while operating in high stakes missions.
In conclusion, each subsystem within group 13 has come together to successfully create the GPS and targeting pod. This design improves off of Northrop Grumman “NGHTS” as the soldier is almost completely removed from dangerous and hostile environments. This targeting pod is not only capable of mitigating exposure to hostile environments but will also be improved upon in the future. As the GPS and targeting pod design progresses into the future, it will revolutionize modern warfare.