Menu

THE CONNIVING CONES

Motto

"Rolling Towards Excellence: Where Cones Inspire Innovation!"

Cones

  • Gage Lankford - Mechanical
  • River Adkins - Software
  • Arthur Hu - Strategy
  • Trevor Johst - Software
  • Lee Liu - Mechanical

Conejournal

^_^ Hello!

Day 1

  • Assembled kit bot
  • Got it driving.

Day 2

  • Working block detection with opencv and webcam
  • Github repo setup and working
  • Conceptualized mechanism for stacking blocks

Day 3

  • Motor encoders wired and working
  • PID coded for driving, but not yet configured
  • Time of flight distance sensor wired and coded
  • Block funnel designed and prototyped

Day 4

  • Time of flight sensor debugged and integrated into ROS node
  • Extracting "angle to block" data from camera in a ROS node
  • Block tower mechanism designed and prototyped
  • IMU and linear actuator ordered

Day 5

  • Inverse kinematics with encoder feedback setup and tested but not tuned
  • Ignoring block colors outside of arena
  • Working autonomous driving to turn towards blocks and drive towards them
  • Tower redesigned to work better with pre-existing stacks
  • Design started on mechanism to move linear actuator

Days 6 & 7 - Weekend

Day 8 - Holiday

  • Wired up and tried to debug an IMU only to discover it was broken :(
  • Started on parametric CAD for final design
  • 3D printed elevator parts to test tolerances

Day 9

  • Tested elevator for linear actuator
  • Finished CAD for tower and confirmed it works with prototype
  • Final chassis design completed in CAD

Day 10

  • Wrote necessary code to control continous servo on elevator and tested it
  • Endstops wired and functioning with ROS2 publishers set up

Day 11

  • Finished CAD for chassis, tower, and elevator
  • Wired and tested linear actuator with motor driver
  • Rewired all electronics and crimped into dupont pins for reliability
  • Attempted to laser cut new chassis but laser cutter ruined the parts :(

Day 12

  • Tested PWM signalling for new motors
  • Debugged our PID control
  • Found a quantum bug with our encoders

Days 13 & 14 - Weekend

Day 15

  • Assembled chassis and tower
  • A lot of motor debugging, but they both work now
  • Calibrated camera

Day 16

  • Fixed caster wheel placement to level the robot
  • Updated camera nodes and publishing, tested homography matrix
  • Implemented breakbeam sensor in software

Day 17

  • Performed servo surgery to use metal gears on our continuous servo
  • Fixing compatibility issues between parts

Day 18

  • Disaster has struck
  • Teensy microcontroller damaged, repair unsuccesful

Day 19

  • First succesful elevator assembly test
  • Rack and tower afjustments for more consistent lifting

Days 20 & 21 - Weekend

  • RGB color sensor wired and included in CAD
  • Hinge rod cut and hinges sanded to fit

Day 22

  • Issues with door servo troubleshooted, switching to set screws
  • Wired majority of electronics to work in final positions
  • Basic state machine coded but still untested
  • Tested door hinges for repeatability

Day 23

  • Wired every component and routed wires to make troubleshooting easier
  • Implemented tower detection to split the state machine on approaches
  • Tested all servo and actuator actions in state machine
  • Door assembled and connected to servo with final configuration

Day 24

  • Successfully picked up 4 blocks

Day 25

  • More logic debugging
  • More wire troubleshooting
  • Sponsor dinner
  • Team pictures with bonus robot!

Day 26

  • Competition day!
  • Final state machine fine-tuning and wiring cleanup
  • Second place finish!