Autonomous Guided Vehicle Master’s Project

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In February this year I started work on my MEng Mechatronics degree at NMMU in Port Elizabeth. The current title for the project is “The Design of a Low-Cost Autonomous Guided Cart (AGC) for Material Handling”. The project was initially suggested through a collaboration of my department and the General Motors factory in PE.

I’ve barely posted any details during the year, I’m never quite sure where I stand with IP, as far as I know I own none of it, and the university owns it all. In any case, as part of the South African Automotive Week held in Port Elizabeth this week, our department had a stand and apparently a video similar to what can be seen below is on show there. I feel that’s more than enough to cover me posting the video here.

There are similar products available on the market, but they are very costly, I’m aiming at my product being less than R30,000 (US$3,500) per unit. Obviously this is a pure cost per unit value, and doesn’t take into account development costs that a normal project would invoke.

There were a list of specifications that had to be met, I’ll post my thesis early next year some time, as with any project, but the budget was definitely the limiting factor. There are lots of nice toys you can put into such a project, such as an R11,000 (cheapest I could find) laser range finder, alas. Finding suitable motors and drivers is also rather tricky.

I initially (and still do) wanted to use a microcontroller. After discussion with several staff members I was pretty much instructed to use a PLC. I understand that the application lends itself to PLCs, but I’m far more comfortable with microcontroller and the cost cutting effect would be significant.

In any case, the video shows some of the testing I did at the GM factory. Control is a bit iffy at the moment, I didn’t research my PLC choice well enough before selecting it. I have a few ideas in mind to improve this, unfortunately I’m in Germany till mid-December (well not really unfortunately) so I’m only going to have a week or two to make changes to my AGV before I have to hand in my thesis.

A bit of Strasbourg, a bit of Rallye de France and a lot of trains

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I had to cut down the photos quite a lot, but there are still over 100. Can be seen here.

Before I came to Germany I checked out the F1 and WRC calendars for the months that I’d be here. While I ran out of luck on the F1 front, the WRC Rallye de France Alsace was taking place while here. And not that far away, just across the French/German border, due West of Reutlingen.

SS19

A week before the rally I started asking around to find out if anyone else was interested and got a few responses. Looking in to getting to the rally was a bit trickier though. The rally was about 180km away, buses didn’t go at appropriate times, and were similarly priced to trains, fairly expensive. Looking at over 100 Euros for a return ticket on the fast trains. And that was only a trip to Strasbourg, never mind trying to get to the stages themselves.

SS21 – left: Loeb (won the rally, and thus his 9th championship) – right: Solberg

A car rental would have been ideal, but the agents in Reutlingen don’t keep great hours on weekends, meaning complicated arrangements and collecting a car in Stuttgart, this linked with expensive rates meant that we were left with our old friend the Schone Wochenende train ticket.

SS21 – left: Atkinson – right: Hirvonen

I asked a few friends if they were interested in going, and before I knew it, we had a group of 13 people walking to Reutlingen train station at 05:30 on Sunday morning. Not all specifically interested in the rally, but interested in travelling a bit. Four hours of trains got us to Strasbourg where we had to take another train to Haguenau, the scene of stage 19. The stage was taking place in the town, and as soon as we walked out the station we saw thousands of spectators. First thing to notice, people with ladders. Lots of them. Apparently veteran rally spectators know how difficult it can be to see the track.

8 Russians, 1 Belgian, 1 Brazilian, 1 Jordanian, 1 South African, 1 Swede

We spent almost two hours there and grabbed some lunch. Then hopped on another train to Bischwiller, another small French town. A short walk to the edge of town led us to stage 21 where we spent the next two hours. We managed to get there before the stage started, so could get a decent spot.

Although it was great to be at an official WRC event, with the top drivers and cars, I think the lack of spectators and barriers back home mean I can get better photos in SA :P

European Union Buildings

After that another train back to Strasbourg. We had hoped to catch the closing ceremony in Strasbourg, but couldn’t find it, so instead opted for a walk to the European Parliament buildings. I found Strasbourg extremely beautiful, lovely old buildings all the way through. We had to stop in front of the Russian, Belgian and Swedish consulates for photos for the respective citizens. Eventually we made it to parliament where we had a look round for a while.

European Union Parliament

Two tram rides back to the train station, grabbed some supper and had to make a mad dash for the train back to Germany. 3 hours later and a late train, we were about to miss a connection. Another mad dash, and fear about missing both trains, and we were lucky enough to make it home just after midnight.

Oktoberfest in München

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Photos to be viewed here. I only took my 50mm fixed lens with, so unfortunately no group pictures.

A Maß of Beer. 1 litre, the only way you can buy beer at Oktoberfest

So during the week the group of Brazilians suggested we make a mission to Oktoberfest for the day. Figuring I wouldn’t have a chance to go to Oktoberfest again I decided to join in. We ended up being a group of 23 international students standing at Reutlingen station at 23h30 on Friday night.

Paulaner was the only brewery whose beer I had tried before in SA

We made use of a group ticket which allows us to travel on any regional trains for 27 hours (DB Schönes Wochenende). Only taking regional trains can end up being quite a pain, but the cost savings compared to taking the fast trains can be fairly large. We ended up with a 3 hour layover in Ulm, at 02h30 in the morning though.

View over some of Oktoberfest

We arrived in Munich (München) on an absolutely packed train. People in Lederhosen and Dirndl were everywhere, drinking on the train already. As we got off the train there were even more people. We took an S-Bahn a bit closer to the event and followed the crowds to Oktoberfest.

At the entrance, photo: Evgenii

When we got there none of us really knew what to do. We knew we had to be there early, as tents closed fairly early in the morning, as soon as they became full. But none of the tents were yet open. Small crowds were gathering around the entrances of several of the tents, so we decided to pick one and sit in line.

Half an hour later at 09:00 the the tents opened and we were rushed in and to two tables. It was lucky we were there that early, as by 09:30 pretty much all the tables were full and the tent was being closed. I use the word tent, but the structure is massive. We were in the Augistiner Bräu tent, which I would guess is easily seating 5000 people. Interesting thing I learnt is that the only beer that can be served at Oktoberfest is beer that has been brewed according to the Reinheitsgebod (the same as Windhoek brewery’s beers) and within the Munich city limits.

So we had a table, and we could sit there till about 15h00 when we would get kicked out, so people with reserved tables could take them over. 15h00 was optimistic. The Russians who were with us wanted to do some sight seeing so left us at about 12h30 and myself with three other guys departed the tent shortly after 13h30. Leaving the Brazilians to their own devices.

photo: Evgenii

We had a walk around the rest of the festival, had a look at the other tents, stores and roller coaster rides which were available. We then took a short trip around Munich and up St Paul’s Church’s bell tower.

The original plan was to leave at 20h30 and arrive back in Reutlingen shortly after midnight. We got to the station and saw we can take a 18h30 train and end up home by 22h15. Deciding this was the best idea, we got hold of the Russians and Brazilians and organised to meet up for the train.

missing train

After a bit of confusion we all ended up on the platform together again, waiting for the train. A train which left almost an hour late. Meaning we missed our early connecting train in Ulm, which meant we still only made it home to Reutlingen after midnight. And because that train was late we missed the night bus back to the residence by 5min. So we walked the half hour instead. We weren’t all too happy about Deutsche Bahn by the end of the trip.

Jorge trying to sleep on the train

The trains were also packed! All seats taken, and no where left to stand. We thought this would clear up by the time we got to Plochingen. But we forgot that Stuttgart’s version of Oktoberfest had just started, the Cannstatter Volksfest and the trains all the way home were full of people going home from there. We ended up standing for majority of the way home. A very long trip all in all.

People queueing to get into tents as we left

General crowds at the event

Besides the lack of sleep and not so great train rides, I had a really great time. It was fun, and had good company to enjoy the day. Would I do it again, probably, but not exactly how we did it. I’m glad I went and had the opportunity to go and say I’ve been to Oktoberfest. The beer and food was good too.

Our ‘waiter’ for the day, must make a fortune

In two weeks time we actually have the opportunity to go to the Cannstatter Volksfest with the university. They organised a sponsor, so we have 2000 reserved seats waiting for us 16h00 the one afternoon. It will be a slightly different experience to Oktoberfest, but looking forward to it.

people inside the tent

The French WRC rally (Rally de France) is happening this weekend in Strasbourg, which is less than 200km by car from Reutlingen. I’m going to chat to some people and see if anyone’s interested in going and maybe go watch some stages on Saturday.

Bodensee, Konstanz and Meersburg

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Gallery of photos can be found here.

On Saturday we went on our final official outing for the international group. We took a bus down to Konstanz, where after a brief tour of some of the sights we were free to do our own thing for a while.

While we grabbed some lunch, others made a dash for the German/Swiss border. Just after 13:00 we met up at the harbour area where we hopped on a ferry which would take us across the Bodensee (Lake of Constance) to Meersburg.

The weather was overcast all morning with the odd light drizzle. As the boat headed out of the harbour the rain started coming down, and persisted till after we arrived in Meersburg. Due to the weather we opted to catch the bus an hour earlier. With not much time we found a small pub to grab a beer and wait out the time.

I would love to take another trip to the Bodensee in better weather, but once again we were greeted by beautiful towns filled with old buildings and detailed architecture.