Automatic Shoes

Hey Everyone! Sorry I am late. It's a jungle out there and I had to beat an old lady with a stick to get my Cranberries..
                                                                                                                              - Peter Parker :>

So YEP, that's right. We have developed a Rechargeable shoes model, which can carry and move weights upto 45 kgs for a time of 15 mins in a full charge. I know, the efficiency, it's pretty less but that is to be improved in the upcoming versions. This is the Automatic Shoes Prototype 1 (ASP-01) and further developments have to be done before it can be brought to streets!!

So this is how it looks! Cool right? :3 All you have to do is fasten up these shoes in your feet, hold the remotes, and you are ready to go for an unworried skating experience. Yes, it is right, unworried. There is some more to it, for which we call these "The Automatic Shoes" apart from the fact that it runs automatically, it stops Automatically too. Whenever there is an obstruction infront of the user, the shoes stop the motion smoothly from a distance of 100 cm to prevent any possible collision. So frankly speaking, you don't have to worry about any accidents while using the shoes. You just gotta close your eyes and control the directions! x)

Here's a glimpse of the test results.

Table of Contents

• Directions of Usage
• Milestones Achieved
• Areas to Improve
• Components Used
• Circuitry
• Coding
• Future Work
• Test Results

Directions of Usage

Start and Stop

There are two remotes for the two shoes. To start the shoes, you need to press the buttons on the remotes and keep them pressed for motion. The moment you release them, the shoes stop.

Take Turns

The two caster wheels on the front of the shoes are used entirely for direction control. For instance, if you wanna move to little left of the road, you have to angle your front feet leftwards as much as required, just like the steering of a car.

On the other hand, If you want to take a sharp left turn, you release the left remote's button. This turns off the left shoe, and with the right shoe still ON, you turn your entire right feet in a circular arc towards the left. The left shoe follows up with the right shoe, and once the complete turn is made, the left remote is pressed ON for the sync between the shoes. Similar is for a right turn.

Automatic Stop Feature

This Automatic Stop feature is controlled by a switch, which is present on the extension part of each of the shoes (red switch near the Arduino). If this switch is OFF, The responsibility of the driving is on the user, that is, the start and stop both are controlled by the remotes in the user's hands. However if this switch is turned ON, the Automatic Stop feature is enabled. That is, the shoes detect any obstruction infront of the user in the range of 0-100 cms, and if so found, the shoes automatically stop, even if the remote switch is still pressed ON. So technically, after you turn this switch ON, and press both of the remote buttons, you can literally close your eyes and travel. You don't have to worry about any accidents happening, the shoes will automatically stop on their own.

This automatic stop feature is ideal while travelling in wide and laned roads with less traffic (like NHs and one way roads). But this is not ideal for heavy traffic roads, because there will always be a vehicle infront of you, and there is no point in stopping every other second xD. Hence, we have provided this as a switch. So it depends on the user when he likes to have this mode ON or OFF.

Milestones Achieved

1. Can be used as an alternative to motor vehicles for travelling shorter distances.
2. Environment friendly and use of renewable sources of energy.
3. Can take and move human weights upto 45 kgs.
4. Rechargeable
5. Remote Controlled
6. Automatic Stop Feature to prevent any collisions.
7. Batteries can be instantly changed to continue motion, in emergency situations where the old batteries die out.
8. Can be popular among kids to come back & forth school.

Areas to Improve

1. Improved balanced system for user.
2. Improved speed. (current = 5 m/s)
3. More compact design.
4. Higher weight load (near about 70 kgs) to make it usable by every group age.
5. Higher dissipation to charge ratio of batteries for longer use.

Components Used

Mechanical Components

1. Wooden Planck : This is the base of the model upon which the shoes are attached, and under which all the circuitry is done.
2. Wheels : The back wheels are strong and large in size to carry the weight of the user. And the front wheels are small and hinged, to provide directions to the shoes.
3. Long Threaded Rod & Nuts : The long threaded Rod holds both the wheels together as a system, with the help of nuts to make sure they rotate at same speed.
4. Pillow Ball bearings : The ball bearings hold this threaded Rod onto the wooden planck as a system.
5. Gears : 1:1 Bevel gears that transform the rotation of the motor into the rotation of the wheels.
6. High Torque Motors : These motors provide the necessary torque for the circular motion of the wheels, that carry the whole system along with it.

Electrical Components

1. Wireless Transmitter & Receiver : These come as a pair. The transmitter comes as a remote (held in the hand), and the receiver comes as an electrical module (placed under the shoes). When the button is pressed on the transmitter, the Receiver gets activated and performs the start/stop operation on the shoes.
2. Ultrasonic Sensors : These sensors are placed on the front-bottom part of the shoes, that helps in detecting any obstruction in the way. This sensor transmits an ultrasonic wave, and calculates the time required by the wave to come back after hitting any obstruction in its way.
3. Arduino UNO : This is the microcontroller that controls the automatic stop feature. It receives the time output from the sensor and based on that, calculates the obstruction's distance from the shoes. Further, if this distance is lesser than 100 cms, it stops the shoes. These operations are done by the program fed into it.
4. Relay : Relay acts as an internal switch. The output of the Arduino is taken as input into the relay. If the Arduino Output is to stop the shoes, it breaks the contact between the receiver and transmitter, thereby stopping the shoes. Otherwise, the shoes motion is not hindered.
5. Li-ion Batteries : These are the rechargeable batteries that powers up all the electrical components as well as runs the motors. The battery voltage is 11.1 V.
6. Charging Socket : The socket for charging up the Li-ion batteries. This socket is compitable with all charging adaptors.

After the whole assembly, the model becomes this!

Ciruitry

All the circuitry is done beneath the wooden planck and the whole circuit is divided into two parts performing two different functions. The first part is the Receiver/Transmitter part and the second part is the Arduino, Sensors & Relay part. The Receiver/Transmitter part is used for the start/stop functioning of the shoes. The Receiver is operated in Normally Open condition with the motors. So that, only when the remote switch is pressed, the motor starts. And, the Sensor-Arduino-Relay triad is used for the automatic stop feature. The Relay is connected to the receiver in the Normally closed mode, so that only when the obstruction is in the range of 100 cms, the relay breaks the connection between transmitter and receiver, hence the shoes stop. Elsewise, the shoes motion is not hindered.

Coding

Coding for the microcontroller was the simplest part of the entire project xD. First the trigger pin of the sensor is set low, then with a delay of 10 microseconds, the trigger pin is set HIGH. This signals the sensor to send the ultrasonic pulse. Then, the time output (in microseconds) from the sensor is stored as duration variable. Since, these are sound waves in air, the speed of sound waves would be 340 m/s = 0.034 cm/ms. Now, Distance = Speed x Time. So, the distance of the object from the shoes, in cms is obtained as, duration x 0.034/2. 2 is divided because the duration is the round trip time from sensor to object and then back from object to sensor, and we need only the former. Now that we have the distance, it is checked if the distance is below 100 cms. If so, a LOW output is sent to the relay port which shuts down the shoes, else a HIGH output is sent which carries on the motion of the shoes. The whole code is run in loops to make this process repititive. Done!!

The link for the entire code can be found in my github repository - Automatic Shoes Code

Future Work

1. Using nano processors to make the design more compact.
2. Developing a motor system that can give higher torques (>75 kgs) as well as higher speeds to make it accessible by all age groups.
3. A better Li-ion battery system that can run the shoes for a longer time to improve the efficiency.
4. Improving the physical structure of the model, to balance & comfort the user better.
5. Using Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) instead of wires to make the model even more compact.

If you have made it this far, I really thank you for your interest :). If you have any ideas or suggestions for helping us improve this prototype, or even are willing to join our team, feel free to reach me below. We would be happy to receive any suggestions. :>

Test Results

Make sure you see the videos in full screen for better experience :)

Thanks for stopping by :> See you in the next one!! For further queries or ideas, feel free to reach me below!