Mark - 1

 Our bot starts by rotating in the starting region, and locates the center mark using two of our IR sensors, stops once the "front" is detected, orients itself using a simple bang-bang controller to move to the center of the board, and speeds up until, the other two IR sensor light up, to prevent crossing the hog line. The pucks are released by the opening of the gates at the same instant as when the bot's stoppage condition is met - this allows for momentum transfer when the pucks slide down the ramp, and go farther in the central arena.

The bot's backing mechanism is guided by an ultrasonic sensor in the back that detects the back wall, and then enters the loading zone again, where the process repeats.

Hence, the main front-runners of our bot's navigation capabilities are carried out by IR and ultrasonic sensing, and leveraging the omni wheels and high rpm motors.

We split powering up and controlling different submodules into two Arduinos - the "brain" and the "spinal cord", which do exactly what they refer to colloquial biology. The "spinal cord" arduino handles control and actuation of the motors, while the appropriate commands are communicated to this arduino by the "brain", which reacts to events triggered by the sensing modules.

 Check Off Video

The Tournament (A Semi Final Finish)