Student Projects
Contact Information
University: University of Bath
Team Members: Maninderjit Brar (2014)
Project Supervisor: Dr. Pejman Iravani
Email Address: msb32@bath.ac.uk
Project Information
Title: Water-jet Levitating Platform for Fire Extinguishing
Description: The project explores the usage of high-pressure water jets to produce lift for a levitating platform. The platform could have potential applications in fire extinguishing where risk is too high for humans and therefore a flying autonomous hose would be of aid to the fire brigade.
In particular the project starts by exploring the dynamics and forces of water-jet vectoring mechanisms to stabilize, initially, an inverted pendulum (Figure 1) system using a feedback Proportional-Derivative controller with integrated feed-forward model based control. Our project shows how the model based system outperforms the feedback only method.
The concept has been further developed into a full 6 DOF water-jet levitating platform (WJLP) system which can be seen below in Figure 2.
Products: NI myRIO-1900, Labview 2013 (32-bit)
Other hardware and software: IMU, Standard Servo motors
The Challenge: Stabilizing an Inverted Pendulum (Figure 1) and a 6DOF platform (Figure 2), systems which is inherently unstable, using water-jet thrust vectoring using servo actuators. An IMU is used to measure the roll, pitch, yaw angles and their derivatives, this information together with accurate physical models are used to control the platform.
The Solution: The myRIO is used as a feedback and feedfoward controller, which uses the Euler angles and Gyro rate measurements from the IMU to compute vectoring angles which output via PWM signals to the servo motors which control the water-jet thrust vectoring modules to correct the angular position of the system by applying the appropriate correction torques.
Using Labview offered an easy to control visual interface to change controller parameters and the use of express VI's allowed for a simpler communication setup with the IMU and Servos.
Figure 1 - Inverted Pendulum Rig at Vertical position
Level of completion: Beta (Inverted Pendulum system is fully functional, 6DOF Water-jet Levitating Platform (WJLP) is fully operational and requires further testing
Time to Build: 2 months Weeks (including WJLP rig construction)
Additional Revisions: WJLP needs to be tested with more powerful pump system which time did not permit but will be the next stage of the project. This will allow the stable levitation capabilities of the WJLP to be fully tested.
Figure 2 - Water-jet Levitating Platform
Nominate Supervisor: I would like to nominate my supervisor Pejman Iravani as an outstanding educator and supervisor who has always given his time to guide me throughout the project, when needed.
At the Robotics Lab in the University of Bath we use LabVIEW and National Instruments technology extensively in our research activities mainly using CompactRIO hardware. Examples include the control of gait of a hydraulic quadruped legged locomotion, multi-material precision 3D printing which includes the control of positioning, temperature and extrusion.
LabVIEW is also used to teach the first year undergraduates the basic concepts behind closed loop control, this is mainly done through a robotics competitions where NXT robots are programmed using LabVIEW. This introduces students to the underlying idea of how sensor information is used to feedback the required information to keep a system under control.
LabVIEW is also extensively used by the final year students in their semester long projects, of which this entry is a good example. Students enjoy the simplicity and the transparency that the technology provides in terms of integrating sensors, actuators and control software with a simple and intuitive software architecture.
