ReCon-AVe: Remote Controlled Automobile Vehicle for Data Mining and Analysis

This paper explores the control of an automobile mounted with a BlackWidow 1.0 microcontroller from a remote location using a smartphone or a computer as a data mining and analysis device as well as for the purposes of first response search and rescue during a disaster relief operation. Custom application programs; ReCon-A for the Android platform and ReCon-V for Microsoft Windows are designed specifically for this project to control the ReCon-AVe vehicle. It is found that the remote controllers are able to control the automobile from distance of more than 20m away in indoor conditions using direct connections. In outdoor conditions, communications using the computer as the remote controller can reach up to 35m while using the smartphone can achieve up to 25m away. Other than that, tests show that the response time of ReCon-AVe is less than 60ms in indoor conditions and 85ms in outdoor conditions. In addition, it can provide visual feedback to the user at a minimum 16fps that also comes with a panning capability. Apart from that, ReCon-AVe proves its capabilities to acquire two different types of sensory data obtained from sensors and then have them transferred back to the user wirelessly for data mining and analysis.