What was the LITEC Smart Car?
The Smart Car was the major project for LITEC students up to and including the Spring 2005 semester. Starting Fall 2005, all sections of LITEC will be working on a new project, the LITEC Blimp. We have kept the information about the Smart Car online so you can read about the systems many RPI students used to make the Smart Car function. Even though it has been eclipsed by the Blimp, the Smart Car will forever remain an important part of LITEC and RPI history. The Smart Car was a model car with an optical line-tracking system and an on-board micro-processor to control the tracking and speed of the car. The development of this system was a foreshadow of the future trend in automotive technology, beside serving its true purpose: to teach the basic concepts of embedded control. To develop the Smart Car, students were provided with a car equipped with an electrically actuated steering mechanism, a DC geared drive motor, and a battery. Students were also provided with a microprocessor kit sm
