Introduction

Team HORSE POWER’s ME 333 project was to build a horse racing game where players compete against each other to get his/her horse to the finish line first. The game challenges the player to shoot a target on the horse with a laser pointer; success in hitting the target causes the horse to run faster, while missing the target causes the horse to run slower.

A drawing of the horse racing game

 

The horse racing game features the following:

• Start
• The horses are lined up at the starting line, getting reading for the race. A pair of IR beam-breaking sensors is used to make sure that the horses are at the correct position. Once the players are ready, a control button is pressed to start the game.

• Race
• The target on the horse is a photodiode that detects light from the laser pointer. The signal received by the photodiode is transmitted by a radio frequency transmitter, also mounted on the horse, to a radio frequency receiver, and then to the computer. The computer processes the input signal using a program, and sends output signal to a motor that control the speed of the horse.

• End
• At the finish line, another pair of IR beam-breaking sensors is used to detect the winner and end the race. There is also an LED display that announces the winner. Then, the control button is pressed again to retract the horses to starting line for the next game

A diagram describing the horse racing game system

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Team HORSE POWER:

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