Team Thirteen/Journal

Revision as of 22:31, 22 January 2014

Day 1 (1/6/14)

Assembled pegbot mechanics (but not wiring), decided on how to solve problems of ball collection (harvester), lifting (archimedes screw), depositing (drop down ramp + extra roller for green balls) and harvesting from the silo (metal rake). Also decided on the overall strategy that the robot would ideally take (wall follow, and remember where landmarks are)

EDIT (1/22/14): DON'T DO A SCREW. NEVER DO A SCREW.

Day 2 (1/7/14)

Spent time today doing most of the wiring on the Kitbot. We ran into some issues with the connection to the battery, which we will work on tomorrow, but it should be easily fixed once the plugs for the battery are delivered. We also started thinking about possible designs for the actual competition robot.

Day 3 (1/8/14)

Today we finished the kitbot and tested it with the tablet. We also started prototyping some of the parts we may use in the final design, such as the ball harvester. We experimented with different dimensions and tried to find the optimal design. In addition, we got the visual systems running and tested it, so now the robot is able to track both the red and green balls/lines. We also continued modeling potential designs for the robot while developing our strategy for the competition.

Day 4 (1/9/14)

Continued working on the ball lifting mechanism using wire. After some testing of the initial concept for the lift, we decided to look at some other ways to implement the basic concept so as to have the most efficient and compact system. Continued modeling of robot/parts. Also developed the visual control system for the robot further.

Day 5 (1/10/14)

Continued prototyping the Archimedes Screw mechanism using cardboard and a laser cut jig. The coding team continued work on wall following and distance measurements.

Day 6 (1/12/14)

Lab was open on Sunday. In terms of code, developed means of determining how far away we are from the walls. The Archimedes screw still was having tons of trouble, so we laser cut one out and it works like a charm. Edited CAD files to incorporate this new design.

Days 7 and 8 (to 1/14/14)

The software team focused on improving wall sensing using the camera, and on extrapolating walls in the camera's blind spots. We made progress, but wall extrapolation is still unusable, as of 1/14. We set up ultrasound sensors on the kitbot, as a possible replacement for camera wall extrapolation.

Build team worked on getting the top layer of the robot CADed. We rearranged the ball sorter and inserted holes/pegs to put everything together.

Day 9 (1/15/14)

On the software side, we gave up on wall extrapolation entirely. Most of the day was spent finding two ultrasound sensors that worked. Added map support for ultrasound.

Finished CADing the bottom two layers. We are a little behind in terms of real construction, so we pushed to get the bottom finished so it can start to be assembled.

Day 10 (1/16/14)

First attempt at wall-following - can kind of do it. Ultrasound continues to be a little flaky.

Mechanical team began cutting out base for final robot. Started assembling the bottom portion of our robot. We had issues finding supplies though - seems like other teams beat us to a lot of equipment..

Day 13 (1/19/14)

Not much work the past two days.

Began work on localization using sensors. Wall-following is hampered by camera performance at close range. Will add forward-facing ultrasound to fix this problem.

Day 14 (1/20/14)

Building - worked on wiring new robot. Stripped down pegbot so we can use its encoder. Made alterations to the top layer of robot - we decided to make it shorter and get rid of the ramp system so there was a pretty big overhaul of our CAD. Hopefully tomorrow we can begin assembling the top half to the bottom half.

Day 15 (1/21/14)

Made a lot of headway on assembling our robot. We wired out breadboard. Clare also got all of our pieces laser cut. We are in the process of putting everything together. Neil put together out aluminum ramp for the ball harvester. We are also working on making hubs and getting all our our pieces connected and able to move.

Goals for the day: Building: Finish assembling the bottom half of the robot today so that it can drive by tomorrow. This means attaching the ball harvester and getting it to work with our ramp. Power it with a motor.

Day 16 (1/22/14)

SCREW IS A BITCH. But it works by hand. We drilled holes into our MDF base to mount the screw. We glued on an aluminum ramp for our harvester. It feeds into the screw well. Plus, the ball exits the screw in the right direction. Successful day!

Goals for the day: Building: Finish what we didn't last night with getting the bottom half to move. Assemble the top half of the robot. Hopefully fine tune the position of our screw (plus its rod) and get it working with our motor pulley system. If possible, attach the mechanism for ball sorting and the side walls (out of sheet metal).

Day 17 (1/23/14)

Goal for the day: Building: Finish the ball sorting structure. Insert a color sorting sensor. Get the dispenser servo working.

Day 18 (1/24/14)

Goal for the day: Troubleshooting - finish what we got stuck on in the previous days.