What's a Buggy?

If you've never been to Carnegie Mellon University, you probably don't know what a "buggy" is. Buggy is a CMU sport somewhat similar to a soap box derby. Unlike a soap box derby, however, dozens of engineering students work year-round to make the buggies as aerodynamic, lightweight, and fast as possible.

What's a RoboBuggy?

RoboBuggy is a spin-off project hosted by the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Club. The goal of RoboBuggy is to build a fully-autonomous buggy that can complete a race without human intervention. The stretch goal, of course, is to beat a few human buggy teams in the process.

Work

I implemented many of the firmware and electrical features, including:

  • Serial communication hardware
    • Uses bidirectional level shifting and multiplexing
  • Steering control
  • Safety features, including an arming sequence and a dead man's switch
  • Radio control reception and decoding
  • Brake solenoid control board design and assembly
  • Logging radio for interactive debugging