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For the common hobbyist or a high grade military application, the AMDV (Automatic Metal Detecting Vehicle) can serve several useful and productive purposes. The technology involved in creating the AMDV is that found in the treasure hunter's arsenal, combing the beach, and devices located in a teenager's cell phone. The primary purpose of this project is automate the metal detection process and to allow a user to interact with the AMDV via a computer program which allows for the directional control of the vehicle and for communication to alert the user of the presence of a metallic object. In addition, the AMDV is equipped to be fully automated to both search, within a specified parameter, for ferrous metallic materials and to record their locations. For the everyday hobbyist these metals would be those found in coins, rings, and other type of jewelry. In the case of a military application the AMDV would be useful in finding metallic objects such as mines or other types of traps to pave the way for soldiers safely. The AMDV's main components are the RC vehicle, the microcontroller unit, the GPS receiver, the collision avoidance sensors, the Bluetooth communication device, the metal detector, and the control software.
The metal detector was made using Beat Frequency Oscillation (BFO) technology. The search coil oscillates at a frequency close to that of the reference coil oscillation and utilizes modern beat frequency oscillation techniques to determine if there is a conductive material within the detection range. The metal detector sends a signal to the main microcontroller unit to indicate that ferrous metal has been found. The microcontroller unit sends the GPS location of the object to the control software which is running on the computer connected to the AMDV via Bluetooth technology and then brings the RC vehicle to a halt for a brief amount of time. When that time is exceeded or the GPS location was confirmed by the control software, the AMDV continues to search for more metallic objects within the given parameters. The microcontroller controls the movement of the RC car but utilizing an h-bridge design connected to the motor which controls the vehicles acceleration and direction. This is used in conjunction with the sensors in front of the vehicle to act as the eyes for collision avoidance.
When the microcontroller unit receives confirmations that ferrous metal has been found, the Bluetooth device reinitiates communication with the computer and sends a signal to the controller held by the user. The AMDV is controlled by a local computer with Bluetooth abilities. The Bluetooth on the AMDV has the capability to reach communication distances up to 100 feet although real communication distance is limited by the communication range allowed by the host computer's hardware. The AMDV is not be purely automatic/autonomous. It also allows for the user of the host computer to switch the setting of the AMDV through the control software to allow the user to directly control the vehicle manually. This feature may be used to bring the vehicle back when it has detected the metal or to manually search an area for metallic objects. As with the automatic mode,
the GPS locations of metallic objects are sent to and recorded by the control software.
......For more information please check out the Confrence Paper and other documents in the Files section of this website.
Copyright 2009: AMDV: Automated Metal Detecting Vehicle Team
College of Engineering and Computer Science, University of Central Florida