Introduction: Stop and Go Pilot System

This project was made in the scope of Materials, Sensors and Applications course in FCT-UNL in Portugal.

It is inspired in the new automotive technology called Stop and Go where the Cars follow the front car automatically ,keeping the distance, when they are in transit.

We used an ultrasonic sensor to measure the distance and an H-bridge to control the direction of the movement for a given difference between the distance of the front object with a declared Setpoint distance.

Materials

· Arduino;

· Bread board;

· Sensor Ultrasonic (Ultrasonic Ranging Module HC - SR04);

· H-bridge SN75441

· LED, (current limiting resistance may be needed);

· Wires;

. Remote controled car;

Procedure are the following steps.

Step 1: Remove the Bodywork and the PCB From a Remote Controled Car;

In this step you should remove all the parts of the remote controled car that will not be used.

You must keep the original 4 batteries from the car and add some power supply for the arduino. Here we used a normal 9 V battery fixed with tape but it is recommended to use a 5V power bank for this application.

The wires in the last image are:

2 from DC MOTOR;

2 from the 4 batteries;

2 from the 9V Battery;

Step 2: Circuit Schematic

This this the schematic circuit of all connections.

Step 3: Assemble the Circuit in the Bread Board

Step 4: Connect All the Wires As Shown in the Picture Following the Schematic.

Step 5: Stop and Go Arduino Code

Connect the arduino to the computer.

Open the arduino software IDE and copy the code and then send it to the Arduino.

This code uses the setpoint distance of 10 cm but it can be changed with any value between 5 cm to 180 cm, according sensor capabilities.

The car must be ready to stop and go.