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Hardware 2012

Project Atlas

I designed Project Atlas as a modular Natcar and an educational platform - an analog front end, a full-featured BLDC motor controller, a power board, and a microcontroller board, split so other students can extend and redesign each piece.

  • Embedded Systems
  • BLDC Motor Control
  • Analog Front End
  • PCB Design
Natcar competition rules ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Project Atlas modular Natcar
fig.16 - Project Atlas modular Natcar

I designed Project Atlas as a modular Natcar that works as an educational tool other students can improve and redesign. It’s built from four boards: an analog front end to detect the signal, a full-featured BLDC motor controller, a power system, and a microcontroller board.

Each year, UC Davis and UCSD host an annual Natcar competition.

Analog Front End

The analog front end is an LC tank with a resonant frequency of 75 kHz. Filtering and gain control are needed to process the received signal from the LC tank into a DC analog signal that an onboard ADC can read.

BLDC Motor Controller

The BLDC motor controller is a board that allows for full-featured, independent control of a BLDC motor.

Power Board

The power board monitors the battery’s voltage and current usage and provides the microcontroller with safeguards in the event of a low battery or a short in the system.

Microcontroller Board

The microcontroller board provides lead-ins to various sensors and inputs. The main control board consists mainly of connectors, displays, and auxiliary ports for the sister boards.