Week 8 Concept Report

Rationale behind our animal design

: We were inspired by frogs to create this design. It is green in colour and “shaped” like a frog thus it cannot be seen easily. This reduces the chances of people stealing our product as normally people don’t go around touching frogs as they might be poisonous. 

: We were inspired by stingrays to create this design. As normally stingray is deadly, people and animals will avoid it. This reduces the chance of it getting eaten by marine creatures and people who have bad intentions. 

: We were inspired by ducks to create this design. As we do not want to disturbed a marine life or animal that might be living in the pond or river when we are doing our research. By disguising our product as a harmless duck, other animals will not feel so threaten by it.

PUGE chart:

Function list:

3D drawings:

Electronic diagrams:

Block Diagram: 

Details on what our product does:

First of all, it will move about the water. The user will manually set a specific timing at which area to take the temperature. The boat will have send back the temperature which it has taken and the coordinates of the location to the computer. The computer will then take the coordinates and mark it on a map. For easier references later on. The user should repeat the process for one month to get an accurate reading at the end.

Details on how the electrical part work together to take readings:

The controller’s XBEE will transmit a signal to the boat’s XBEE to give it command. Since the controller’s XBEE is connected to the joystick module, the user will only need to use the joystick to move the boat around. The boat will then base on the user’s control move to a specific location to take the water temperature. The user will have to press a button to active the temperature sensor to start taking the reading. The GPS will also be activated at the same time to read its location. The readings will be sent via the boat’s XBEE to the computer’s XBEE.

Details on how the electrical part work together to move the boat around:

The motor is connected to a motor shielding + XBEE which allows the user to control the speed of the motor via the controller. The servo motor is also connected to the motor shielding + XBEE thus the user can control the moving of the servo motor. The servo motor will determine the direction of the motor. Therefore, the boat can move forward in any direction.