Today, we had to complete the challenge of following a line with gaps in it. Pictured above is Larry the lizard (our robot). He was able to successfully follow the line and make it past the gaps. Our original idea of using a touch senor to maneuver the robot back to the black line was a huge success. So much so that other groups were asking us how we programmed the touch sensor. Luckily, no one was able to master the touch sensor as much as we did, so we got first on time! we made it around the track in 40 seconds our first round then the second round, we made it around in 39 seconds.
After we were done testing our robot, we took it apart and started brainstorming ideas to help with the next challenge presented to us. For this new challenge we have to create a robot that is able to throw a ball (catapult style) and then once the ball is thrown, our robot needs to find the ball that it threw. For extra credit, we can then program our robot to pick up the thrown ball, and throw it again. We are aiming for the extra credit, but today we are concentrating on constructing the catapult and the robot itself.
During mentor session, we worked on constructing the robot. We started with using the motors and connecting them to the wheels that way our robot is mobile. We are then going to use a windmill like design to capture and then re-throw the ball. There will be an arm that spins constantly to re-load the ball into the catapult. We plan to direct our robot to run over the ball that way the arm can then pick back up the ball. We are using the ultra-sonic sensor to help us find the ball. We plan to also use the Bluetooth on the robot as a backup just in case the ultra-sonic sensor can't find the ball. This Bluetooth will be hooked up to one of our phones and it allows us to steer the robot with simple tilting of the phone. We may just end up using the Bluetooth and not using the ultra-sonic senor, but we have until Monday to figure it out.
Our software solution is to use all three of the motors. Two of those motors will be programed to move the wheels of the robot, allowing it to move after the ball. The last motor controls the windmill which will rotate in a complete circle that way it can pick up the ball and throw it. We are still trying to figure out how to use and program the ultra-sonic sensor. We figured out how to work the Bluetooth and so far that is what we are going to have to do. We plan to spend Wednesday finishing the programming and also trying to figure out the ultra-sonic sensor.
This picture shows what we have done so far on the catapult robot! We plan to continue to work on and program it on this Wednesday.
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