The Solar-Powered Automated Transit Network (ATN) Project at San Jose State University in California

This project, the Spartan Superway, is being conducted by an interdisciplinary group of faculty and students at SJSU. It began in the fall of 2013 and has recently released some results from the work of many students and faculty from several departments.

To date, three videos and one master's thesis have been released that describe portions of this work. The goals have included the invention of a working scale model of an automated vehicle that can be used to demonstrate the ATN concept. Links to the three videos that have been released are provided below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWLJX7Vl5CY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7DvorwPKYA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp-63JZ4Cys

More detail is provided in Adam Krueger's MS thesis on the development of a simplified track for ATN development. This is the result of work over the last year that addressed the issue raised in the transport-innovators discussion on "Why are there no decent scale models of ATN using off-the-shelf robots?" (8/1/13). Adam's track uses 1/32 scale slot car parts, Arduino microcontroller, photoreflective sensor, on-track encoder, some electronics, and 3D printed chassis. The above YouTube videos show operation of the track and vehicle developed in this project.

Considerable additional details are provided by Krueger's 119 page Master's Thesis document. Here is a link to the full document: http://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans/Thesis_Krueger.pdf

Link to details on the Autonomous Control System work done a group of  Computer Egineering students is provided here.

 

Additional information about the project, pictures, and videos can be found at: https://www.inist.org/projects/Spartan_Superway/

Here is contact information for the faculty person who is directing the evolution of the whole project:

Burford J. Furman
Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
San Jos? State University
One Washington Square
San Jose, CA 95192-0087
Phone: (408)924-3817 FAX: (408)924-3995 Email: Burford.Furman@sjsu.edu
Web page: http://www.engr.sjsu.edu/bjfurman/

Last modified: 07/04/2014