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A genetic algorithm is developed to train a fuzzy controller for a miniature mobile robot. The aim of the controller is to navigate the robot in unknown enviroments avoiding obstacles. An original way to code the individuals was succesfully implemented. The fitness function was totally created for the authors appying some technics from reinforcement learning to reduce the training time. Also to accelerate the training process the rules and the entire rules base (the individuals of the population)were qualify by the fitness function. This means that not only the best individuals of the population were taken but the good genes of the best individuals were taken. This was done with special care to avoid over exploitation and optaining local minimums. Present and future works of the project includes cooperative learning where three or more robots learn separately and the share their knowledge

The Energy Center is a data acquisition system with a web based front end. The system essentially sends out requests at predetermined intervals to renewable energy sites. The energy sites respond with the data requested. The system is setup to receive six different types of renewable energy data: - Cogeneration - Solar Photovoltaic - Hot Water Solar Power - Tidal Basin & Water Wave Power - Hydroelectric Power - Wind Power The system records such variables as Amperage, Voltage, Wattage, Frequency, Q-Flux, Flow Rates, Wave Amplitudes, Wind Speeds, Temperature and more.

Vibrating beam micromechanical resonators constructed in a variety of materials, have recently emerged as potential candidates for use in a variety of frequency-selective communication applications. Considering the large range of developments possible in this field, our group, as its senior microelectronics capstone design project, is pursuing the objective to design, fabricate, and successfully test free-free beam, flexural mode, high-Q, micromechanical resonators, utilizing non-intrusive supports to function as frequency selective filters. Free-free beam microresonators feature torsional-mode support springs that effectively isolate the resonator beam from its anchors via quarter-wavelength impedance transformations, minimizing anchor dissipation and allowing these resonators to achieve high Q with high stiffness in the intended frequency range. Simultaneously, we will design, fabricate, and test clamped-clamped micromechanical resonators, which are also meant to function as frequency-selective filters.

ALVIN-VII is an autonomous vehicle designed to compete in the Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition. The robot uses high torque IMS MDrive34 stepper motors which drive two wheelchair wheels.The power system of the robot consists of a custom designed printed circuit board with circuit breakers for regulated supply of power to all the electronic components of the robot.The robot itself is powered by light weight and compact lithium ion batteries. The competition consists of Autonomous and Navigation challenges. Using tri-processor control architecture the information from various components such as sonar sensors, cameras, GPS and compass is effectively integrated to map out the path of the robot. In Autonomous challenge, the real time data from two IEEE Pyro cameras and an array of four sonar sensors is plotted on a custom defined polar grid to identify the position of the robot with respect to the obstacles in its path.Depending on the position of the obstacles in the grid, a state number is determined and a command of action is retrieved from the state table. The image processing algorithm comprises of a series of steps involving plane extraction, morphological analysis, edge extraction and interpolation, all of which are statistically based allowing optimum operation at varying ambient conditions. In the Navigation challenge, data from GPS and sonar sensors is integrated on a polar grid with flexible distance thresholds and a state table approach is used to drive the robot to the waypoint while avoiding obstacles. Both algorithms are developed and implemented using National Instrument’s (NI) LabView platform. The project effectively integrates various fields of engineering in terms of both designing and building the robot.

Within the framework of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), we are implementing a locale specific height above ground (HAG) measurement system incorporating optical flow sensor measurements (the same sensors found in your computer's mouse). The implementation of an efficient, light-weight, and potentially low-cost solution to aircraft attitude stabilization system based on detection of the horizon via thermopile measurements is also being pursued, which could replace or augment autopilot, camera stabilization, and photo-stitching systems already in use. These systems will be combined and produced in a compact self-contained package. This work is being carried out with the intent of significantly contributing to the UK Big Blue Mars Glider project and the PAX River UAV competition in June 2006.

Developed a system to authenticate the identity of a vehicle owner via RFID tag, RFID Reader, and Microcontroller to allow access into the a vehicle. The Primary objective was to unlock a vehicle's locking system upon presenting a valid tag.

In order to provide Stevens Institute of Technology with an advanced, versatile and cost-effective way to sign up students for various events/workshops, our team has purposed the Smart Card System concept, sponsored by the Career Development Office. ‘Smart Card’ employs our existing Stevens ID card to easily allow students to sign up for different events/workshops. Students will swipe their ID card through a common card reader where their respective information will be retrieved from the database and displayed on a web interface. Thus providing the department more efficient and accurate reporting, for budgeting events/workshops, statistics on student’s attendance, and therefore allow faculty members to spend more time accessing student needs. Thus,our system will cut down overall time spent by faculty and students signing up, paper and clipboard costs for Stevens, and may be used in other departments that need accurate reporting/statistics on students accessing their department for various reasons. Critical Components: Our system is comprised of the following components:
-Stevens ID card
-A card reader supplied by the ECE Department.
-A dedicated laptop will be used to display the I/O interface.
-Backend Server to store data (student information), in this case, will be a laptop that Stevens provides.
-Software package constructed in Visual Basic will reside as an executable on the dedicated laptop.
Business Function:
•Existing Stevens ID card employs multi function.
•Speeds up the signing process for events/registration/attendance.
•Cost-effective and versatile system.
•Enhance work place effectiveness and efficiency.
•Offer secure solutions when retrieving student information.

Our project consists of creating a low-power, low-cost (under $20/mote in volume production) solution for the implementation of a ZigBee based wireless sensor network. ZigBee is a standard for a set of high level communication protocols designed to use small, low-power radios based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard for wireless personal area networks. The ZigBee Data Forwarding Unit (DFU) consists of custom designed mote hardware that is flexible enough to function as the network coordinator, router, and/or an end device. The mote will be flexible enough to interface to external sensors through onboard Analog-Digital Converters (ADC) and Interrupts. End devices shall have the ability to operate for a minimum of three months autonomously on two standard AA batteries. Each mote will have the ability to communicate to a computer through use of a USB Virtual Communication Port, allowing for the connectivity of user interfaces through the USB while using simpler RS232 protocols. The mote hardware is designed to be powered by either an external 3-3.3 volt DC power source (such as batteries) or to be powered over the USB interface. The hardware will be configured through the custom tailored DFU software. The DFU software handles the ZigBee wireless mesh networking protocols, mote configuration, and sensor data forwarding. Mote configurations handled by the DFU software include micro-controller power settings, ADC accuracy, message reporting rates and conditions, and network configuration. There will be two types of methods for communicating with the deployed motes. The first type includes using a program, such as Hyper Terminal, to send/receive basic commands to the attached mote. The second method for Mote communications is through the DFU GUI. The GUI will interface to the network Coordinator mote. The GUI will display a graphical representation of the Network Topology in real time. The GUI will also allow the user to make mote specific configuration changes and interpret sensor data that has been received from the network and forwarded from the network. Also included in the project are basic sensor boards that will allow for the fielded demonstration of the ZigBee DFU. Each sensor board will contain two temperature sensors that will each interface to a DFU mote. The sensor board will also be able to trigger an external interrupt, simulating a more complex sensor’s signal conditioned interrupt line.

The team’s strength begins with a strong sense of teamwork and shared responsibilities. The project manager is Solu Nwanze, an international student and computer engineering major. Dave Charles is the chief hardware/software engineer and a computer and electrical engineering major. The chief systems engineer, Kenny Ventura, majors in electrical engineering and Michelle Vose is an electrical engineer major and the team’s project controller. The senior design process at UMass mimics the system engineering process, with systems requirements reviews, preliminary design reviews and critical design reviews. For our initial design of the Remote Access Meteorological Data Acquisition and Reporting (RAMDAR) system, we chose a hard wired serial and Ethernet network with one microcontroller. As our design matured, we discovered that by using the popular Dallas 1-Wire system, we could add the flexibility to expand the system to measure relative humidity, rain detection and other meteorological readings. For our final design, we chose to implement this 1-wire technology, but with only three weather readings. We added the Atmel Butterfly as a second microcontroller and DLP RF transceivers instead of a wired network. The RAMDAR system uses a 1-Wire sensor that includes a thermometer, wind vane and anemometer. The 1-Wire sensor sends an analog signal to an Atmel microcontroller that converts it to a digital signal and wirelessly relays the data via DLP RF transceivers to a Z-World BL2010 microcontroller. The BL2010 sends this data to an Alpha 215 message display, home user terminal, email recipients and a team-designed web site. The user has four ways to access the data from the BL2010--the web site, the home user terminal, by email and the Alpha display. The primary method to view weather data and to make changes to the system is the web site. We chose this method since it will allow the system to be remotely accessible on the internet. The web site will allow a user to view the current weather, modify email recipients or send a custom message to the message display. The Alpha display serves multiple functions; it displays the current weather and customized messages such as errors or user inputs. The home user terminal is software that provides the user a direct serial connection to the BL2010. The home user terminal has expanded capabilities since it has administrative rights to the BL2010.

The H2X Autonomous Dual Navigation System Vehicle is a 4-wheel car robot that can navigate from point to point while avoiding obstacles. This vehicle may be used for autonomous exploration of remote and potentially dangerous locations that can pose a risk to human explorers. The objectives of H2X are threefold: 1. Long range operation 2. GPS guided navigation accurate to within three meters of destination 3. Obstacle recognition and avoidance The vehicle uses two systems for navigation - GPS and electronic compass. Communication with the vehicle is performed via a wireless connection to the base station (computer). From the base station the user can enter GPS destination coordinates (waypoints) to map out a path for the vehicle to take. The user can also track the vehicle's position in real time. All obstacles encountered along the way (via a rotating ultrasonic range finder) are reported to the user. Once the vehicle receives destination(s) coordinates and is commanded to start moving it proceeds to the locations specified and avoids obstacles on the way. The GPS system identifies the vehicle's coordinates and the destination coordinates. On every GPS coordinate update the onboard microcontroller recalculates the remaining distance and heading to target. If the GPS signal is temporarily lost, the vehicle stops moving and waits for the signal to reappear.

A compact, portable, robust laser-light projection system for public relations presentations has been designed, fabricated, and tested. The demonstrated system is capable of displaying animated multi-color laser-drawn images accompanied by audio. The system will be used in public demonstrations to promote the electrical engineering program at the United States Military Academy and potentially as the basis for an extra-curricular student club for cadets interested in creating laser light shows. The system incorporates design aspects from electronics, electromagnetics, photonics, and control theory. Additionally such engineering factors as safety, packaging, and economics have been considered and incorporated into the system. In the system, a collinear beam of multiple lasers is reflected onto a projection surface.

The objective of this project is to investigate and prototype a system which will identify the dominant color in a video signal and project the color onto a surface. More specifically, the system will be connected to the output of a DVD player or television and will project the video’s dominant color onto the wall surrounding the television using multi-color super-bright LED's. This ambient light helps reduce eye strain while viewing a video, and also creates an environment enhancing effect for viewers. The project consists of two major stages, the first of which is to design a proof-of-concept prototype using off-the-shelf modules. The prototype’s major components include a video frame grabber, ARM micro-controller development board, and multi-color LED’s. A custom printed circuit board (PCB) will be designed for the circuitry used to drive the LED’s. All software necessary to interface the modules together and the algorithms to determine and project the dominant color will be written by the project team. The second major stage of the project is a board-level feasibility and cost analysis. In this project stage, the feasibility and cost of implementing a pre-production prototype shall be determined. This shall be accomplished using discrete integrated circuit (IC) components on a PCB, instead of off-the-shelf modules. In addition to design tasks, the project’s budget, schedule, and risks will be managed throughout the course of the project. The team will track and analyze their progress using an earned value analysis (EVA).

In this ever-advancing Information Age, we have become connected to each other as never before. Unfortunately, we are connected to each other even in our cars, where communications devices divert our attention away from the road, provoking traffic accidents. As a result, traffic accidents due to negligence are now a growing problem in the United States. In 2000, traffic accidents were estimated to have cost the US economy a total of $230 billion. Of these, the two leading types of accidents, rear-end collisions and intersection collisions, were responsible for $43 billion in economic costs, nearly 9,000 deaths, and a staggering 950,000 injuries annually. The Laser-based Crash Avoidance System (LCAS), patent pending, aims to reduce the occurrence of such collisions by enabling automobiles to electronically detect imminent collisions, and proceed to warn the driver while there is still time to avert the crash. Our system uses infrared lasers as a transmission and measurement medium, shooting a laser beam out in front of the vehicle to detect objects ahead, or sending a modulated digital signal behind the vehicle to inform vehicles behind of changes in its speed. In standalone mode, the LCAS detects preceding vehicles by shooting a laser beam out in front of the vehicle, and then monitoring the phase of the beam that is reflected off of any forward obstruction. By comparing the phase difference between the two beams, the LCAS microcontroller can calculate the distance to that obstruction, and with multiple measurements, its relative velocity and imminence of collision. If both forward and rear vehicles are LCAS-equipped, the LCAS units can operate in assisted mode, with the forward vehicle digitally beaming backwards its own velocity for the rear vehicle to compare against and act upon. In addition, LCAS lasers could also be mounted in traffic lights, transmitting the state of the light to approaching vehicles. By using laser-based technology, which has greatly improved in performance and price in recent years, the LCAS is able to avoid the interference problems of other RF-based systems, and deliver this functionality at a much lower price than more complex GPS-based systems. This would allow the LCAS to be deployed in a wide range of vehicles, warn more drivers during imminent collisions, and save more lives.

In today’s society, computers and laptops, along with interactive devices, have increasingly played a major role in our lives. One of the best known interactive devices is the conventional mouse that moves freely on a flat surface. The concept of the mouse was first introduced in 1963 by Dr. Douglas Engelbart as part of his research on 'augmenting human intellect and the potential of computers to assist people in complex decision making' (OSR0103.html) at Stanford Research Institute. He foresaw the importance of having an interactive device that would be able to move the cursor on a computer display screen. Consequently, we have adopted some characteristics of a mouse to develop our “Mobile Interactive Panel.” The dimension of this panel is 11” x 11”; it acts like a flat surface similar to what mouse would use to move the cursor on the display screen. Instead of a mouse, we use a laser pointer to point on the surface of the panel. This enables a mouse pointer to move from one point to any desired point on the display screen. As a result, the mobile interactive panel provides freedom of movement and total control of usability. This mobile interactive panel is not developed for just one purpose. This interactive device would be useful for presentation purposes, such as PowerPoint. In addition, its application is not bound to a particular software or operating system. This interactive device can be used as a remote control device for many appliances, e.g., TV or DVD player. It can also be used to operate electromechanical devices, such as a robotic arm or guiding a miniature toy car, provided that the software must be modified before such task is carried out.

Recent research has shown that many buildings are operated with undetected low energy efficiency. The lack of a well recognized scheme for assessing the performance of buildings is largely responsible for this situation. Over the last three decades, the development and application of Building Management Systems have significantly influenced the way in which the energy performance and the quality of indoor environment control are evaluated. However suitable performance assessing schemes that are affordable for the majority of building owners are still far absent. With the recognition to this problem, we decided to make an attempt to develop a simple scheme for assessing the performance, including energy efficiency and quality of indoor environment control, of small and medium sized commercial and residential buildings. This scheme consists of a ZigBee based wireless sensor network for collecting supporting data. The wireless sensors network is designed to allow for easy and affordable acquisition of data that is essential for the assessment of building performance. The variables to be measured include air temperature and humidity in individual rooms, external climatic conditions, parameters of humid air in critical locations throughout the HVAC system, energy consumption, and the working states of key components of the HVAC system. The information is measured by pertinent battery driven sensor units, which are linked with a ZigBee protocol based wireless network. Through the wireless network, the sensor units are accessed from a central computer and thus information exchange is realized in real time. The sensor units can be configured to work in different modes that are appropriate to relevant applications. The information collected in the sensor units and transmitted through the wireless sensor network to the central computer is then used for the performance analysis. The impacts of this design will influence the energy efficiency of residential houses in the following ways:
- It allows for affordable assessment of residential house performance and therefore potentially more house owners will be willing to evaluate their homes.
- The availability of the assessment scheme may result in a new service in the residential energy industry to help house owners identify potential to save energy and to propose practical options to realize the potential.

Presently in the aeronautical industry, in order for aircraft to safely land at night, it is imperative for airport runway lights to operate at the correct intensity level. In order to verify the intensity of each light, a technician from the airport must visually inspect each of the runway lights every night. This results in a non-precise and inconsistent measurement system. In addition it is manpower intensive. Considering that large airports such as the Toronto Pearson International Airport have approximately 14,000 lights, an automated system capable of conducting the light inspection, would be beneficial. The project cell has created a fully automated light inspection system. The automated system consists of a robot called the Runway Light Fault Detecting Robot (RLFDR). The RLDFR is a proof of concept robot, which will do an inspection of an indoor mock-up runway. The RLFDR uses a line following protocol for navigation as a proxy for GPS, and uses a camera in order to find the desired light intensity. The camera is mounted on a servomotor, allowing the RLFDR to have a greater range of view. The robot pans the camera while moving to position itself exactly in front of the light. Then in order to find the light intensity, the microcontroller sends the camera a command to take a picture of the area in view. A rectangle box is then bounded around the area of the light. The size of the rectangular box, which is proportional to the light intensity, is then used to determine the serviceability of the light. The RLFDR also has the capability to communicate wirelessly to an operator at a base station computer. It can also communicate to a user via an LCD display mounted on the robot. The operator can wirelessly initiate the inspection. Once the RLFDR begins, it traverses the mock-up runway and determines the light intensity of each of the lights in terms of three levels; zero, mid and max intensity. Once the inspection is complete, the RLFDR sends a report to the base station, which indicates the intensity of all the lights. The Runway Light Fault Detecting Robot won first place at the IEEE Student’s Paper competition for the entire Eastern Ontario region. Teams from four universities competed, including teams from Queens University, University of Ottawa, Carleton and RMC.

The goal of the Emergency Locator project is to design a device that will enable a speech-impaired wheelchair user to request assistance by sending message and location information to a remote caretaker. The project is being developed as a 'proof of concept' prototype for the UMass Dartmouth Center for Rehabilitation Engineering. The Center plans to use the designs to create a number of such systems for their clients. To make the most effective use of our efforts, we have planned and tracked our project through requirements specification, work breakdown, budget, schedule, risk analysis, acceptance test planning, and earned value analysis. There are only a few major requirements for the system, including the need for battery power and small size to fit on a wheelchair. The rest of the details were left up to our design team. Given complete creative license as to the implementation, our team is engineering a solution to exceed many of our customer requirements. Our prototype includes an embedded GPS receiver, a single switch scanning user interface, a regulated power supply, an embedded x86 PC, and an Enfora GSM modem. The modem allows us to transmit messages to any cell phone, email address, or web server, and greatly expands our range requirement of one mile to the huge service area provided by a GSM network. To reduce our actual cost and stay within the $500 development budget, we fabricated our own circuit boards and worked to acquire a number of key donations such as the modem and GPS receiver. The embedded software was developed in Linux and consists primarily of C and C++ routines, including serial communications, GPS control, message formation, user interface display, and power control. We decided to use multithreaded processes to allow our routines to operate in parallel and share information. Additionally, our team is implementing an online tracking server to supplement email and test messages. This LAMP/Ruby based server will allow us to store messages and display the wheelchair location graphically using a service such as Google Maps. Our project presents a wide range of technical challenges and involves the theoretical design and working application of both hardware and software. This requires strong teamwork and constant communication between the electrical and computer engineers. The learning brought about by the development of this project is sure to leave a lasting impression on all of us.

Gibraltar is an effective and efficient host-based software and hardware design implementation that helps to protect mobile devices as well as their networks from attack. A mobile device's intrusion protection system is at odds with itself: it should run as often as necessary and remain transparent to the system and the users; however, it should use as little system resources as possible to detect, report and prevent intrusions. Thus, a fundamental approach of how to architect a protection method that can embrace a wireless security evolution in a flexible, non-intrusive, and efficient manner is critically needed.

As the daily use of mobile computing devices (such as PDAs and smartphones) in business, government and personal activities increases, the likelihood of these devices becoming targets of attacks also increases. In fact, a variety of attacks against a wide array of mobile devices have recently been discovered. Although mobile platforms are globally omnipresent, security developments for these systems have not kept pace with their technological advancements. Most of these devices are poorly configured by default for security and present day security measures do not deliver practical solutions.

Gibraltar uniquely combats a wide variety of security threats by effectively monitoring demands placed on battery current (mA) as well as correlating power and event activities, such as processes, network traffic, open ports, and registry keys. To accomplish this forensics-oriented transformation, Gibraltar utilizes the battery signal as a reference to device usage without the need to conduct more complex scans that persistently use processing cycles. Gibraltar's combination of power and system activity monitoring serve as an early warning tripwire-like sensor for mobile hosts that blocks as well as identifies attacks. Examining and correlating these constraints and activities, creates an effective monitoring agent on end-platforms that are conventionally considered the weakest security link of a network. In effect, Gibraltar provides a totally host-based proactive form of intrusion protection that serves as an inexpensive, easily integrated and readily available novel enhancement in detecting, alerting and responding to various intrusions on mobile devices that complements virtually any network intrusion detection system already in place.

Landmines are exploding devices which, by their design, cause traumatic amputation of foot or leg, often combined with multiple severe wounds. The wounds are all severely contaminated by mud, grass, pieces of shoes and clothes driven deep into the wounds at the time of explosion. Colombia is the second country with major number of antipersonnel mines in the world, unlike the rest of countries that possess mines, mines continue being sowed increasing the number of victims. This one is a great scourge that affects the whole population without any type of discrimination finishing with dreams and illusions of the persons who are victims of these artifacts. Our aim is to design a system capable of fighting this serious problem identifying the zones of high risk for a subsequent process of demining.

We have designed a novel multichannel front-end for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). The front-end (MR. IMAGER) connects to an MRI scanner and digitally processes raw magnetic field measurements into a final image. MR. IMAGER uses innovative data acquisition techniques (such as undersampling) and integrates all digital functions onto a single Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), which make the device cheaper, smaller, and more scalable than existing commercial solutions. These characteristics also make MR. IMAGER ideal for academic MRI research. A four-channel prototype of MR. IMAGER has been designed, implemented and tested successfully with speed and image quality comparable to proprietary front-ends. Research into imaging fast motion, such as a beating heart, involves parallel imaging, where multiple pickup coils compensate for the artifacts caused by shorter scan times. This requires an economical and scalable front-end that can accommodate a changing number of pickup coils without expensive and cumbersome hardware modifications. Also, proprietary front-ends usually deny complete access to intermediate data that may be needed for research. Thus, the objectives of our design are: reduced cost, high scalability and total accessibility. MR. IMAGER achieves these goals by directly undersampling up to 16 pickup coils at RF, with all subsequent demodulation and image reconstruction performed on a single FPGA. Complicated analog components, e.g. mixers and phase-lock-loops are eliminated along with associated inaccuracies such as channel-to-channel imbalance. On the FPGA, sampled data are digitally downconverted to baseband. These data are then reconstructed to an image with a 2-D Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and displayed in real time on an attached VGA monitor. MR. IMAGER is a networked device, and intermediate data that has been buffered to an off-the-shelf RAM module can easily be transferred to a PC for research. Various FPGA blocks, including the downconverters and the Ethernet/VGA controllers, have been custom coded in VHDL and C. Built to be completely accessible, MR. IMAGER is at least ten times cheaper than proprietary front-ends. Parallel imaging researchers using more than 16 coils can scale by using multiple MR. IMAGERs in tandem. It is our sincere hope that MR. IMAGER will accelerate breakthroughs in medical diagnosis by lowering the economical and technical barriers to academic MRI research.

This project involved the design and implementation of a human computer interface (HCI) based on eye tracking. Current commercially available systems exist, but have limited use due mainly to their large cost. As a result of this, the system was designed to be low cost. The technique used was video-oculography assisted by corneal reflections. The three major components of this design are the Image Acquisition System (IAS), Eye-Gaze Detection System (EGDS), and the Graphical User Interface (GUI). The IAS manages image capture and creates specific illumination patterns necessary for the EGDS feature extraction. The EGDS detects key features from the images and uses these to calculate where the user is looking on the monitor. Finally, the GUI displays results and allows the user to modify system parameters. The eye-gaze tracking system was implemented in software utilizing MATLAB as a development environment.

In sound transmission applications an audio source is created, processed, routed, and sent to an output device. There are many situations where a live audio source requires the freedom to move uninhibited by a wired connection. Generally a wireless microphone system is used to meet this need for mobility. Wireless microphones use companding (a made up term meaning compress-expand) to match the dynamic range of a signal to that available in the transmission channel. In almost all of the current companding schemes the expander has inverse gain characteristics as that of the compressor. There are a plurity of reasons why the full dynamic range of a signal may not be desired. In professional audio applications it is commonplace to use a compressor after inputting the audio signal into the mixing console to meet this need.

RU WISE is a device that receives telemetry data (acceleration, proximity and external temperature) from a remote controlled vehicle and displays the data on a LCD screen. It also receives audio and video signals from a camera module (with microphone), uses a TV transmitter to transmit data which will then be viewed a TV screen. The focus of this project is to design and build a wireless communication system that effectively communicates pertinent data using packets.

The rationale behind this project is to provide the user with information regarding the vehicle’s acceleration, proximity to other stationary objects, external temperature and to provide audio and video information of the near by environment. The information gathered would be useful if the vehicle is used to explore unfamiliar territory.

A practical application of RU WISE is a surveillance or spy robot. It can be outfitted with different types of sensors to detect numerous surrounding objects and environments. Another use of RU WISE is to explore uninhabitable or hostile environments where human exploration is limited or impossible. RU WISE also demonstrates various concepts in wireless communications like the transmission and reception of telemetry data as well as audio and video signal transmission using low frequency digital modulation schemes.