The robot

Our solution:

To develop Zephyr we have taken our version '99 of the same robot. With that robot we managed to win the Fire Fighting contest 1999 at the LAMI EPFL. The robot's strong points are its velocity (close to 2 m/s) and its extinction system. This system consists of a KISAG cylinder (normally used to make creme), which assures a high pressure stream of N2O. It is mounted on spring sheet. A linear camera (Texas Instruments, TSL 1301) allows to localize the candle. Our robot is driven by two motors (Portescap 22N48), which are equipped with reductors and optic encoders. All elements on the robot are controlled by a Motorola "HC11" processor.

Evolution from 1999 to 2000:

The goal being to improve our robot's capabilities, some modifications are being done at the moment. We use the new Kameleon board (provided by K-Team), which is equipped with a Motorola 68376 processor. We are adding several distance sensors. The extinction system will be maintained as it is for it has proved to be very efficient. The main part of this project is the C implementation of an efficient and robust software allowing a clever behavior in the labyrinth.

Technical specifications of Zephyr in 1999:

The system is based on a LAMI Rok11 board with a HC11 processor. 2 Portescap
12V motors drive Zephyr.

	Extinction The main originality of this robot is the use of a KISAG cylinder to extinguish candles.
	Power supply The power supply is assured by four 9V batteries (2 for the motors and 2 for the electronic parts).
	Motors power supply D/A converters serve as drivers for the motor power supply (to avoid the use of PWM). A self-made amplifier-controller system amplifies the converted signal.
	Velocity and its control The velocity is captured by the encoders followed by F/A converters. A PI controller has been developed (after last year's contest) on the HC11 microcontroller (in CALM). This work has been done during the practical lessons of the Automatic cours, 6th semester micro engineering. A report about this development can be obtained at the LAMI or by downloading it (zip file containing the report and the CALM code).