The Software Design and Implementation of Unmanned Intelligent Vehicle Team-forming System

Outline

This article briefly introduces the main chapters of my graduation paper for the undergraduate study, mainly including abstract, research content, relevant technologies and the system’s overall design.(Please note that for more details please see my graduation thesis)

Abstract

At present, car networking ,using RFID, mobile communication, GPS, wireless network and other access technologies and network service support technologies to realize networked cooperative operation and intelligence among cars, people, roads and environments, is a new application of mobile internet in the automobile industry as well as the core competitiveness of today’s automobile industry. However, driverless cars are the development trend in the future. Questions like How to realize vehicle networking so that vehicles can communicate with each other and work together and how to control the driverless cars are heatedly discussed today.

Therefore, based on the internet of things technology, this paper simulates the process of unmanned intelligent vehicles running in groups and transferring information among vehicles. STM 32 embedded development platform and ZigBee wireless communication technology are used to realize the mutual communication among unmanned intelligent vehicles. With the help of Android software development platform and Keil platform, the main logic codes are written to accomplish the functions of remote control of several unmanned intelligent vehicles and their abilities to send control commands to each other during driving so as to quickly form groups.

After testing, several smart cars have been arranged in various formations such as " one", " v",”X” , rectangle , etc. The intelligent gateway or Android mobile phone has been used to control unmanned smart cars efficiently, in real time and accurately, and to realize the function of communication among smart cars.
Key Words: intelligent gateway; android phones; car networking; team system

Introduction to Relevant Technologies

Technologies Relating to STM32 Embedded Processor

As one of the most popular chips today, STM32 chip owns many excellent characteristics. The full range of products share most pins, software and peripheral equipment, and their outstanding compatibility enable developers to design in a flexible way. Meanwhile, STM32 series processors have the ability to quickly enter the market. For example, STM32F103 series chips have already been widely applied in smart home, medical equipment, construction security, industrial automation, consumption and many other areas. All these prove the great application prospects of STM32.

ZigBee Wireless Communication Technology

Based on the wireless communication protocol of low-rate personal area network, the League of Nations developed ZigBee wireless communication technology, a wireless technology relating to networking, security and application software. The name of ZigBee comes from the figure-eight dance of bees, because bees flap the wings by flying in the form of ‘zigs’ and dancing to exchange the position signals with their partners so as to form the communication network. Such a kind of communication network can be helpful to predation and predator avoidance.

Wi-Fi Wireless Communication Technology

Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) is a kind of technology that connects the terminals like personal PC and handheld device in a wireless way and it is a short-distance wireless technology, similar to Bluetooth technology. As a brand of wireless network communication technology, Wi-Fi is owned by Wi-Fi Alliance. The meaning of Wi-Fi is to improve the connectivity of wireless network products, all of which are based on IEEE 802.11 standard. The forms of Wi-Fi include Wi-Fi cards, the connection with computer and more. The Wi-Fi wireless communication technology in this project is mainly applied into Android mobile phones’ control of intelligent vehicles team-forming system, and it is the protocol that needs to be obeyed in the socket communication between Android client and server.

Keil Software Platform

As the independent supplier of microcontroller software development tool, Keil is run by two private enterprises jointly, namely Keil Elektronik GmbH in Munich of Germany and Keil Software Inc. in Texas of the USA. In 2005, Keil was acquired by the British company ARM and now it is a subsidiary of ARM. The programming environment used by this intelligent vehicle’s operation control module is Keil uVision4. And C language is used for programming in this environment.

Android Software Platform

Android operation system is the latest intelligent mobile phone development platform released by Google in November 2007. The core module of the system comes from the Linux technology. Java is Android system’s development language and it is open, platform-unrelated and object-oriented. JDK, Eclipse, Android SDK and Android ADT are the development tools necessary for Android development environment. JDK is the software developer’s kit indispensable for Java development. Android SDK is the software developer’s kit solely owned by Android. Eclipse is the well-known cross-platform free integrated development environment. Many software developers use Eclipse as the framework of their IDE development.

The System’s Overall Design Scheme

This project mainly relies on Android software development platform and Keil platform to write main logic codes and realizes the remote control of several unmanned intelligent vehicles and the control command delivery and quick team forming of unmanned intelligent vehicles in the driving process. The design covers the system’s overall design, software and hardware.

Three system function modules

The control of intelligent vehicle team-forming system by intelligent gateway

Modules Involved: ZigBee coordinator, motor drive module, vehicle’s ZigBee module, main control chip module, intelligent gateway control module

Module Introduction: The Android software development technology, ZigBee wireless communication technology and STM 32 embedded technology are used to realize the serial port communication between intelligent gateway and ZigBee coordinator so as to realize the individual control of one intelligent vehicle among several intelligent vehicles or one in the network through intelligent gateway and thus the function of intelligent vehicle team-forming.

The intelligent gateway is connected with ZigBee coordinator through computer’s serial port. The Zigbee coordinator module and the ZigBee wireless communication module of intelligent vehicles are configured in the same network, so the intelligent gateway can realize the data interaction with the ZigBee module of intelligent vehicles through the serial port communication with ZigBee coordinator, and the intelligent vehicles can receive the commands sent by intelligent gateway in a timely manner and give corresponding actions to realize the intelligent vehicle team-forming function.

Module Function：It realizes the serial port communication with ZigBee coordinator. This module firstly designs the control interface, adds listener to the button on the interface and meanwhile creates the buffers to save the data that will be sent to intelligent vehicles. In the process of operation, if users click the button to open the serial port, they can get the input/output stream, if users click the button to control the vehicles, the data in the buffer will be written into output stream automatically, if users click the button to close the serial port, the input/output stream will be closed.

The control of intelligent vehicle team-forming system by Android mobile phone

Modules Involved：ZigBee coordinator, main control chip module, client, server, motor drive module, vehicle’s ZigBee module.

Module Introduction：Java network programming, ZigBee wireless communication technology and STM32 embedded technology are used for the overall networking of intelligent vehicle, Android mobile phone, computer ZigBee coordinator. Firstly, it is to realize the Wi-Fi socket communication in which the Android mobile phone is used as client and computer as server. Then, it is to realize the serial port communication between server and ZigBee coordinator. Finally, it is to use Android mobile phone to control intelligent vehicles to realize the team-forming of intelligent vehicles.

Client: The main function of client is to establish the network communication with server, to design control interface and use input stream to acquire the information sent by server and display it; add event listener to all buttons so that different control commands can be sent to the server through output stream once users click the button;

Server: It is to establish the network communication with client and the serial port communication with ZigBee coordinator. The server needs to operate the serial port according to different control commands sent by the client and then send data through the serial port to ZigBee coordinator. For example, if the control command sent by the client is to control the movement of intelligent vehicle 1, the server should open the serial port connected with ZigBee coordinator and then write the corresponding data into output stream. If the control command sent by client is to close the serial port, the server needs to call function to close the serial port connected with ZigBee coordinator.

Android client’s interface design: The top is used to receive and display the text information sent by the server, and then come the ‘connect server’ button used to connect server and the ‘Open Serial Port’ button that can control the serial port. CAR 1 represents the intelligent vehicle No. 1 whose node address in the network is 0x01. CAR 2 represents the intelligent vehicle No. 2 whose node address in the network is 0x02. CAR 3 represents the intelligent vehicle No. 3 whose node address in the network is 0x03. CAR 4 represents the intelligent vehicle No. 4 whose node address in the network is 0x04. The button behind every CAR symbol represents the movement control for this intelligent vehicle. For example, if the user clicks the ‘Move’ button on CAR 1, the intelligent vehicle No. 1 will move. If the user clicks ‘Speed Up’ button of CAR 1, the intelligent vehicle No. 1 will speed up. The ’ALLCAR‘ button means it can control all the intelligent vehicles in the network. That is to say, if the user clicks the ’ALLCAR‘, all intelligent vehicles in the same network segment can be controlled to move, back up, slow down or stop etc.

Intelligent vehicles’ automatic team-forming system

Modules Involved: Motor drive module, vehicle’s ZigBee module, main control chip module
Module Introduction：The STM 32 embedded technology and ZigBee wireless communication technology are used to realize the communication among four intelligent vehicles. For example, when intelligent vehicle No. 1 sends information to other intelligent vehicles, other intelligent vehicles can correctly receive and process the information, give corresponding responses and then return the information. Afterwards, intelligent vehicle No. 1 will act according to the information it receives. This function requires every intelligent vehicle to be able to send, receive and process data. The team-forming modes include cyclical mode and master-salve mode.

1. Cyclical mode
   Intelligent vehicle No. 1 sends information to intelligent vehicle No. 4 and controls the movement of intelligent vehicle No. 4, and then intelligent vehicle No. 4 sends information to intelligent vehicle No. 3 to control its movement. Afterwards, intelligent vehicle No. 3 sends information to intelligent vehicle No. 2 to control its movement. Finally, intelligent vehicle No. 2 sends information to intelligent vehicle No. 2 to control its movement. This cycle repeats. (please see this demo)

2. Master-slave mode
   Intelligent vehicle No. 1 sends information to intelligent vehicle No. 2, intelligent vehicle No. 3 and intelligent vehicle No. 4. After receiving the commands, the three vehicles have corresponding movements. (please see this demo)

Conclusion

This article realizes the real-time, accurate and efficient control of unmanned intelligent vehicles and the communication among unmanned intelligent vehicles through intelligent gateway and Android mobile phone by simulating the team-forming process of unmanned intelligent vehicles.

The team-forming system realized in this article includes a small number of unmanned intelligent vehicles. When more vehicles are involved in team forming, the team forming patterns will be more complicated, which will need vehicle sensors with more functions to realize the accurate communication among unmanned intelligent vehicles. For example, the positioning module can be added to unmanned intelligent vehicles to give real-time location information to other vehicles. Besides, in the intelligent vehicle team-forming function realized in this article, if one of the four intelligent vehicles has a failure or meets an obstacle, the intelligent vehicle cannot report the failure to other intelligent vehicles. As a result, other intelligent vehicles cannot adjust their state in time, such as adjusting to the original position or reforming the team.

The following work is to use the infrared sensor of the intelligent vehicle to realize the obstacle avoidance function of intelligent vehicle and reduce a series of safety problems that may be caused to the largest extent when intelligent vehicles meet obstacles so as to endow the intelligent vehicle team-forming system with the intelligent function of avoiding and processing obstacles. As a kind of intelligent service, unmanned vehicles have been heatedly discussed among countries. However, how to realize the accurate control of unmanned vehicles to realize the zero accident and the car networking in the real sense is a difficult issue faced by all countries. Therefore, this project simulates the control of unmanned vehicles in real life and the communication among unmanned vehicles to predict the problems that may appear in the future development of car networking technology to accelerate the development of unmanned vehicle system in the era of car networking. It enjoys great prospects.