During the end of the 2022 fall semester, I had the privilege of working with three other undergraduate students for the ME 522 Mechatronics final project. Our group developed a prototype racing car simulator that incorporated many mechatronics concepts learned throughout the class including microcontrollers, sensors, and actuators.

Our group had a fully functional final demo and well-received presentation, and the project earned a near-perfect grade. 

• The group must deliver a physical prototype (though not expected to fully meet safety and durability requirements for a production-ready system)

• The device should be "safe-for-work" in scope and execution but may satisfy the project objective in any way the team otherwise deems appropriate

• The device must fit within the volume of an 18"x18"x18" cube

• The device must be programmable and respond in some way to its environment

• The device must contain functioning elements from 7 categories

Arduino Uno: Mapped the potentiometer input ranges from 0-1023 to 0-179 and rotated servo / triggered directional turn based on input.

PIC16F88: Modeled a car with a 0-60 time of 5 seconds resulting in a max acceleration of 12 mi/min^2 or 120 mph. Both potentiometer inputs (gas and brake) were mapped to values between 0-12. Using a loop time of 1 second, acceleration was converted to speed and distance. The speed and distance (split into 3 numbers) was displayed on the LCD. Based on the turn orientation from the Arduino Uno and the state of the limit switches, the buzzers were activated at different pitches.