Team Thirteen/Journal
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Day 1 (1/6/14)
Assembled pegbot mechanics (but not wiring), decided on how to solve problems of ball collection (harvester), lifting (helical elevator), 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)
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.
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.
