Our robot uses a straightforward strategy to achieve these objectives - first, a beacon turret mounted on the second layer of the chassis is used to localize and find the closest tree. It then travels to the tree and uses servo-actuated arms to sweep in acorns from the tree, after which it rotates, moves up to the opposing side's fence and shoots the collected acorns using a spring mechanism. The spring mechanism uses 2 stiff compression springs in parallel, driven back and released using a snail cam connected to a metal shaft. This process is repeated for both trees, after which the robot goes into "defense mode" - identifying opposing yard's acorns as they enter, capturing them, and shooting them out one by one. 

The hardware architecture of the robot consists of 3 PIC32MX170F256B microcontrollers - one acting as a leader device (the "Leader PIC"), and two followers. One follower PIC is responsible for the drivetrain and limit switch actuation, and the other peripheral PIC is responsible for receiving inputs/commanding outputs for all sensors. See the Electrical page for more detailed information.