Team Six/Assignments

From Maslab 2009

Assignment 4

Written Report

Obviously, the goal of team six is to score as many points as possible. With that in mind, we want to give out robot the flexibility to pick up any ball that it sees regardless of its color and then put balls into goals whenever the goal is nearby. As a result, we designed our robot with three levels; one for collecting and sorting balls as they come it, one for sensors and equipment, and the third and top level for storing collected balls.

As a ball enters the robot, it passes through a one way gate. This gate will ensure that any balls that the robot captures will stay captured even if we can't score them. After the gate, the ball or balls will be funneled into a corridor where a photo resistor will determine the color of the ball. Based on the color of the ball, a servo will flip a gate moving the ball along the red or yellow path as required. After the gate, the ball will move onto a ramp where a wheel and belt system will move the ball up the ramp to the third level. The wheel and belt system is designed to be modified to include paddles or rubber bands if the belt fails.

On the third level, the balls will be moved onto a slanted tray divided into two sections to keep the balls separated. Each section of the tray will lead to a ramp at the corner of the robot that is protected by a gate attached to either a servo or solenoid mechanism. When the appropriate goal is in view and in line, the gate will open allowing the balls to roll down the ramp and into the goal.

On the second level, we currently plan on having bump sensors at each corner of our robot. These sensors will allow the robot to sense any walls that its running into. Infrared sensors will be place facing forward, left, and right allowing us to follow walls and judge where we are in relation to the board. The camera will be on this level facing forward angled as deemed necessary. The battery, orc board, and EEEPC will also have a spot on the second level. There is extra space on the second level to be used for design changes and additions as we deem necessary. We hope the flexibility in the second level will allow us to deal with unforeseen problems as we build.

Work Schedule

Week 1

Mechanical: Get the first level with the ball sorting and motion control finished so that we have a working bot for Mock 1.

Programming: Wall following, ball recognition and ball collection code working

Week 2

Mechanical: Second and Third levels of bot with ball holding working

Programming: Goal scoring and PID control of movements

Week 3

Mechanical: Fine tuning of all the moving parts and assuring that they are consistent

Programming: Mapping and fine tuning of code

Week 4

Everything that goes to pieces will get fixed in this week.