UGRT
Business Plan
University of Guelph Robotics Team
Fall 2012/Winter 2013
Table of Contents
Overview
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1
Project
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1
Project Development Plan
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2
Team Development Plan
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3
Promotion
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4
Financial Plan
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5
Conclusion
s
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7
Overview
The University of Guelph
has recently expanded its School of Engineering
which
include
s the
Mechanical Engineering program. To compliment to this program, many new and
exciting courses are being offered in
the area of
mechatronics. In addition, by introducing the
mechatronics stream,
M
echanical
and ES&C
engineering students have the option to spe
cialize
in this stream, which focuses on advanced mechatronics systems
including robotics, estimation,
and control
.
As a group of highly motivated undergraduate students, we are
v
ery interested in gaining
hands
-
on experience and applying theo
ries learned
in the classroom to
robotic systems. As such,
with the help of Professor Biglarbegian, we have established
the University of Guelph Robotics
Team
(UGRT)
in November 2011
.
Since
then the team has rapidly advanced in designing robots
and has showcased these robots at
campus
events such as
College Royal
,
and the
SOE Opening
Ceremonies
.
The robotics t
eam is
targeted towards Engineering
S
ystems
& Computing and
Mechanical Engineering
students;
however,
it
is not limited to
these disciplin
es. Prof.
Biglarbegian will be the faculty advisor for the team and will oversee the teams operations.
More
importantly, the UGRT will bring students from different disciplines and different
years
together
to be able to efficiently work together towards bu
ilding robots.
We are very confident that the robotics team will provide a great opportunity to
strengthen our engineering skills that will help broaden our practical experiences in future.
The
UGRT for coming school year consists of the following undergr
aduate students:
Jon Walsh
Padraic Griffin
Evan Walsh
Josh Bravin
Shehzad Khan
Eric Kassabian
Anjuli Nason
Ryan Myers
Curtis Duquette
Brian Camnzu
Marco Conflitti
Jake Gillson
Julian Dileonardo
Brandon Rozo
Ben Corcoran
Adam Borecki
Project
For the coming academic year (Fall 2012/Winter 2013) the UGRT has selected the
Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition
(IGVC)
as the senior robotics compet
ition
for
the teams
design project
.
The IGVC
is
a prestigious
international competition which is held annually,
offers a design experience that is at the cutting edge of engineering education. It is
a
m
ultidisciplinary, theory
-
based, hands
-
on, team implemented, outcome assessed, and based on
product realization
compe
tition
.
The IGVC
encompasses the very latest technologies impacting
industrial development and taps subjects of high interest to students. The deadline of an end
-
of
-
term competition is a real
-
world constraint that includes the excitement of potential
ly
winning
recognition and financial gain.
Students at all levels of undergraduate and graduate education can contribute to the team
effort, and those at the lower levels benefit greatly from the experience and mentoring of those at
higher levels. Team organ
ization and leadership are practiced, and there are even roles for team
members from business and engin
eering management, language, graphic arts
and public
relations.
Project Development Plan
As the
team has been recently
formed
,
we realize that there ar
e
many challenges to meet
to successfully compete in the IGVC in June 2013. However, with careful
plan
ning we aim to
reduce the number
of s
tart
-
up issues and focus on
developing our knowled
ge and skill sets for
the IGVC. T
he team has
developed
a tentative
schedule which we will use as a guide to
keep the
IGVC project on track and ensure successful development. Table 1, presents a schedule of dates
for the design
and build
of the IGVC robot.
Table 1: Schedule of Dates for IGVC Robot Development
Task
Date
Initial Brainstorm and Resea
r
ch
04/05/2012
-
14/05/2012
Mechanical Design
14/05/2012
-
28/05/2012
Advanced Mechanical and Hardware Design
28/05/2012
-
11/06/2012
Systems and Electrical Design
11/
0
6
/2012
-
25/
0
6
/2012
Advanced Systems and Electrical
Design
25/
0
6
/2012
-
25/
0
7
/2012
Systems Integration
25/
0
7
/2012
-
1/
0
8
/2012
Prototype
Report Write Up
01/
0
8
/2012
-
14/
0
8
/2012
Simulation and Mechanical Pre
-
build
14/
0
8
/2012
-
04/
0
9
/2012
Robot Platform Build
04/
10
/2012
-
10/
10
/2012
Electric Wiring
10/
10
/2012
-
10/
1
1
/2012
Sensor Configuration
10/
1
1
/2012
-
01/01/2012
Software and Hardware Integration
01/01/2013
-
15/03/2013
System Testing
15/03/2013
-
01/05/2013
Team
Development Plan
The
final goal of the UGRT is
to
establish a strong robotics
program
on campus
in order
to design and build autonomous mobile r
obots with advanced features to
participate
in
prestigious
competitions
,
such as the
IGVC.
In order to complete this objective the team must
ensure that a solid knowledge base i
s built and
passed on from year
-
to
-
year within the team.
In
order to facilitate team organization and ensure longevity the founding UGRT members have
developed a constitution that sets out the goals, administrative structure and policies of the
UGRT. See Appendix I fo
r the full UGRT Constitution.
To develop the skills necessary to contribute to a senior design team, the UGRT plans on
holding an annual Development Competition where new members will design and build a small
maze
-
navigating robot. The competition will be
held within a larger university event such as
College Royal to help further promote the School of Engineering and provide a fun atmosphere
for the team members.
The development competition will divide new members into two teams (or more) who
will have to w
ork within a set budget and other constraints to design and build a robot capable of
navigating a given maze in the shortest time possible. Guidance and mentoring will be provided
by senior team members. This project will allow junior team members to build
a solid knowledge
base on the hardware required, programming skills and implementation required for robotics
projects.
Promotion
UGRT has set in place an outline of a
promotion
strategy, described below, which will
allow the team to promote itself and
seek sponsorship from local industries in order to fund the
teams major project,
the
IGVC
competition
. The
team requests funding from the School of
Engineering and hopes to augment this funding with the sponsorship acquired.
UGRT will represent the School
of Engineering at a number of campus events such as
College Royal, Campus Day and others. This will enable the team to promote itself to
the
student
population
, potential sponsors
,
the university
and the
community. These events will
display the latest
te
am developments in
robots and provide demonstrations for spectators
to
encourage interest in robotics and engineering
.
The team members have also developed a UGRT website to provide updates and promote
the team (
http://www.uoguelph.ca/~ugrt/
). The team will be promoted
through publications such
as OSNAP, the Ontarion, and the School of Engineering’s website highlighting the team’s
progress and upcoming events.
Financial Plan
T
o operate the UGRT
in terms of equ
ipment and material
,
as well as
achiev
ing
the
stated
objectives
,
and participat
ing
in
the IGVC
,
the team
is in
need of financial support
,
as
outlined in
Table
2
.
We
hope the UGRT
could
develop an annual operating budget through which
it could
be able
to
run the team. Depending on operating costs for the inaugural year
,
the team will adjust
its annu
al funding request as required.
Table 1 summarizes the operating costs for running the
UGRT annually.
Table
2
: UGRT Operating Costs
IGVC Competition
$16,5
00
Development Program
$500
Promotion
$250
TOTAL
FUNDING REQUEST:
$17,2
50
The projected component costs
for the IGVC project
,
outlined in Table
3
, were
determined through the evaluation of costs of
other teams IGVC robots, which include major
components required for the competition
. It should be noted that the
first year
start
-
up capital
costs of the IGVC competition is very high due to the need to acquire some very expensive
sensors
. It is worth mentioning that these items
will be purchased on
ly once and
will be re
-
used
from year
-
to
-
year by the team. These include the differential GPS and SICK Laser Scanner with
a combined projected cost of $9500, representing more than half of the first year budget.
Table
3:
IGVC Competition Costs
Design
Component
Cost ($)
Chassis Materials & Constructi
on
$500
Wheels & Suspension
$250
Motors & Controllers
$1500
Onboard Computer
$1
500
Differential GPS
$5000
Onboard Camera
$500
Power Supply (Batteries & Electronics)
$1250
Microcontrollers (Motor
Controllers, etc.)
$750
SICK Laser Sensor
$4500
Miscellaneous Components
(Sensors,
Actuators, Converters)
$750
TOTAL ESTIMATED COST
$16,500
Conclusion
s
The UGRT aspires to develop a strong robotics program within the School of
Engineering to
represent the University of Guelph and promote both mechatronics and robotics
within the community. It will also attract people from different disciplines and enable them to
work together. While the event is fun, it also requires the team to gain advanced
knowledge in
mechatronics. The development of an autonomous mobile robot to compete in the IGVC in June
2013 is the goal for the inaugural robotics team which the team is requesting funding from the
School of Engineering. The founding members of the team f
eel that with the support of faculty
advisor Dr. Mohammad Biglarbegian and the School of Engineering that this can be a beneficial
and educational endeavour for all involved.
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