The Games are On!

For this year annual ME218C competition, players must use their BOSYN (controller) and connect with a BOAT for an intense game of sharks and minnows. Equipped with BAYT (a balloon) and a BYTER (a balloon popper), BOATS will compete right in our very own Terman Fountain.

The centerpiece of Lightning PICQueen is the voice-activated lightning bolt weapon, with a scream of "KA-CHOW" into the handheld microphone activating the most devastating of balloon-popping weaponry.

This project served as an exercise in inter-processor communications, as the class developed a shared communications protocol together for the controllers and boats. XBee radios connected to PIC32 microcontrollers were used for operations and communications for both boat and controller. This made it so that any controller can control any boat, adding an extra element of chaos to the competition. 

A pairing sequence is made so that only a single controller can be connected to a given boat at a time. Standard operating communications occurred at a 5 Hz frequency, with the controller relaying command information to the boat and the boat responding with weapon status.

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