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  • Olivia Rivera - (Mechanical)
  • Gabriel Guillen - (Electrical)
  • Prince Tufon - (Software)
  • Momo Omotoso - (Electrical)
  • Alaysia Stone - (Software)

Weekly Milestones:

Week 1:

  • Have baseline robot built and driving correctly
  • Color detection
  • Decide on additional attachments (for collecting, sorting, and stacking cubes)
  • Decide on materials
  • Mock Competition

Week 2:

  • Order materials
  • Prototype/CAD design for cube collecting and stacking

Progress Report:

Day 1:

  • Designed top plate of kitbot in Onshape
  • Began and completed software setup of NUC
  • Began hardware assembly of kitbot

Day 2:

  • Redesigned and printed top plate
    • needed to add additional attachments on the bottom of the top plate for the power converter
  • Finished electrical wiring and hardware assembly of the kitbot
  • BOT DRIVES CORRECTLYYYY
  • Tips for points:
    • find cubes of the right color with computer vision and have a way to passively pick them up
    • can bounce off of the walls
    • have a set path and pick up cubes in that path
    • factors that may affect the behavior of the bot: friction on wheels....
  • Started research on mechanism to pick up cubes

Day 3:

  • Began ideating different collecting, sorting, and stacking approaches/mechanisms
  • Attached camera and test ran bot again
    • Issues:
      • bot doesn't drive forward smoothly (spins around left wheel) but drives backward fine
      • tried to fix left wheel issue by reattaching the wheels and losening it but the problem remains
  • Set up GitHub
  • Began writing cv code
    • started subscriber nodes to camera image topic

Day 4:

  • Implemented color segmentation successfully
  • Began work on PID control system to correct driving inconsistencies (wheel issue)
  • Prototyped basic design concept for mechanics of sorting and stacking
  • Began CADing structural components for design concept
  • NEXT STEPS:
    • autonomous movement
    • improve cv
    • how to pick up and move cube

Day 5-7:

  • looked into the specific parts and necessary materials for the design components of the bot
  • continued to work on cv and camera stuff
    • making sure color segmentation works properly for red and green
  • worked on motor control feedback
  • continued work on coordinates and localisation
  • finalized game strategy and slightly changed design concept
    • looked into materials to order and put in request

Day 8-10:

  • continued CADing structural components for design concept
  • finished color segmentation for red and green
  • currently publishing location
    • working on taking this information and deciding how to move
    • theoretically figured out a way to produce autonomous motion
  • continued work on PID control (running into lots of issues)
  • began april tag work

Day 11:

  • Laser cut and assembled stacking tubes and base of sorting tray
  • played around with the claw and servo motor we ordered
  • completed function that is able to recognize and determine distance from apriltag

Day 12:

  • fixed PID
  • huge milestone: BOT IS CAPABLE OF AUTONOMOUS MOVEMENT
    • turns somewhat sporadically; need to refine thresholds for cv and turning

Day 13:

  • implemented launch file for everything
    • may want to discard node executor thingy-majingy
  • working on refining computer vision

Day 14-15:

  • redefined game strategy and mechanical design
  • scored points on the floor using autonomous motion
  • played around with linear actuator to make sure it worked properly and decided to use it for the claw motion rather than the stacking operation

Day 16:

  • designed and CADed gears and claw mechanisms
  • tested different gear sizes to try and find the correct gear ratio
  • had to trouble shoot weight issues
  • laser cut all the claw, gear, and end stopper pieces
  • started to work on implementing claw and linear actuator

Day 17:

  • tested that the gear ratio and linear actuator would be capable of withstanding the weight of the claw
  • assembled the claw arm and gear assemblage
  • started constructing state machine to facilitate the robot's operations
  • programmed claw and linear actuator subscriber/publishers

Day 18:

  • gears were too small and weak to lift the weight of the claw
    • switched to a rope pulling approach instead
  • attached box to hold cubes
  • reattached NUC and other pieces to the new top plate
  • test ran the bot to debug

Day 19:

  • DEBUGGGG
  • rope pulling approach did not work:(

Lessons Learned & Future Advice

  1. Communicate more cohesively as a team from the start
    • Decide on the mechanical components as a team before going deep into software
    • Test the bot frequently as you try new things
    • Don't overcomplicate things - start with a simple design and focus on basic goals before adding anything additional