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Team Status Report for 10/18

What we did this week:

  • Completed layout and part selection of interface PCB, designing for high speed signals
  • Completed the simulation, design, and layout of the two illumination PCBs.

Part A(Claire):  Our ToF imaging system addresses a global need for accessible, reliable, and cost effective 3D sensing in aquatic environments. Existing technologies like sonar and lidar are often expensive, bulky, and energy-intensive, limiting their use to large institutions or well-funded operations. By leveraging visible light illumination, custom PCB design, and commercially available components, our end goal product offers a compact and affordable solution suitable for research, environmental monitoring, and underwater robotics worldwide. This enables broader implementations in underwater exploration and supports global efforts in marine conservation, environmental data collection, and structural and technological accessibility beyond academic or high resource settings.

 

Part B: Not applicable. Our ToF sensor is a component of a larger system (AUV). As such, it does not address any cultural need.

 

Part C (Gleb): In general, the ToF sensor doesn’t address a specific environmental need, but the robotic system on which it is mounted might. With that, the ToF can conceivably impact some marine organisms in its immediate vicinity due to light emission. However, we are also hopeful that the ToF will replace sonars in some applications. Sonars are known to have a significant impact on marine life at large distances.

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Claire’s Status Report for 10/18

Completed interface PCB layout passing general design rules.

Things I kept in mind to mitigate EMI and clean high frequency signals:

  • Routing on single layer with no vias, keeping traces straight and short as possible for priority high frequency signals (clock signals)
  • Careful part selection with low esr (equivalent series resistance) capacitors and generally compact 0603 to 0402 packages
  • Decoupling capacitors located immediately next to corresponding pins on the same layer, each with its own 3V3 power via
  • xtal crystal oscillators immediately next to pins on the same layer
  • Continuous solid ground plane on layer 2
  • Matching trace lengths and series resistors
  • Bulk tantalum capacitors on input power supplies
  • Ferrite beads for clean analog power pins

On schedule, will finalize design with team and order boards + components.

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Team Status Report for 10/4

Working through calculations and details of design report.

Additional circuitry and component selection for interface PCB, finalizing LED driver PCB with supporting simulations.

Collecting parts to order, specifically those needed to verify firmware and conduct preliminary tests that don’t require the custom PCBs.

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Team Status Report for 9/27

Selected specific STM32 chip (STM32H563RI) and configured peripherals.

Selected clock modulation IC that works with EPC660 and EPC21603 (single ended + LVDS differential, respectively).

PCBs of MCU+interface and control board schematics underway, along with verifying design through simulations.

Design presentation preparations and communication of necessary requirements across modules and firmware.

No pushbacks in schedule nor changes in design.

 

 

Part A(Sid):

The Illuminator can be beneficial for many aspects of public safety and welfare. Underwater robots are required in many critical applications such as water tower maintenance and underwater shipwreck recovery operations. By increasing the resolution, cost-effectiveness, and field of view of these robots using a visible light ToF camera, loss of life can be prevented by increasing the effectiveness of recovery operations. In addition, water towers can suffer from corrosion and leakage of poisonous materials. By accurately inspecting scale and buildup on the inside of water towers with robots, these dangerous growths can be identified earlier before they leach into supplies.

PartB(Claire): Not applicable. Our sensor system does not ignite social activities in any way as it does not have a human to human interaction in its design. It does not emphasize cultural awareness or political campaigns, and is not intended for any of those purposes.

PartC(Gleb): The main application of our underwater ToF camera is to provide volumetric vision capability to AUVs doing close-range manipulation. In general, AUVs are expensive, with prices in tens or hundreds of thousands dollars. Therefore our sub-$1000 sensor will constitute only a small fraction of the vehicle cost.

Currently, the only feasible alternative for close-range 3D vision underwater are stereo-cameras. A high-quality stereo-pair cost is typically $500 or more. For example, the cameras used for stereo-vision on TartanAUV’s Osprey submarine cost around $3500 each. Therefore, our system is very competitive in terms of cost. Additionally, a ToF sensor has certain advantages over stereo-pairs, which we discussed in our design proposal.

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Claire’s Status Report for 9/20

09/20

Component, headers, and MCU selection complete after confirming compatibility on data sheets. Figured out powering board / supplies needed as well as voltage step-down circuitry. Notes below.

Digital

3.3V VDDIO for high speed IO pins like MODCLK

Lots of switching noise, supply wires and layers must be carefully designed and isolated in a separate supply island on the PCB

-> step down to 1.8V for VDD VDDPLL

Analog

+5V for internal analog circuits 

External Power Supply (for now)

+10V VDDPXH pixel field circuit

-10V VBS biasing pixel field

Progress is on schedule!

Next week: Layout PCB through Altium Designer