Research and Development

Annotated Sketches

These are our annotated sketches of the components that our team will be using to create the product. The components are the VEX V5 Battery, the VEX V5 Robot Brain, and the VEX V5 Sensor, all of which will be used to create a prototype shown in the second picture.

CAD Models of Our Components

VEX V5 Optical Sensor

After doing some further investigating we found that the AI Vision sensor would be better suited for our project. Here is a picture of our CAD model directly provided by VEX that demonstrates what the VEX V5 Optical Sensor looks like. The optical sensor detects the color of the traffic signal and sends it to the robot's brain. The robot brain then relays the color the optical sensor detects to the display screen on the back of the large semi-truck.

VEX V5 Robot Brain

Here is a picture of our CAD model of the VEX V5 Robot Brain, which was also provided to us directly by VEX. Our team is going to code the robot brain to allow the sensor to detect only one of three colors: red, yellow, and green. Once one of these colors is detected, the robot brain will be coded to display the color detected directly on the screen on the back of the truck.

VEX V5 Robot Battery

Here is a picture of our VEX V5 Robot Battery, which VEX also provided to us. The robot battery in our prototype will power the robot brain so that the sensor can effectively deliver the color it detects to the robot brain. The VEX V5 Robot Battery powers up the whole system so that our prototype can be effective and project the color of the traffic signal on the screen at the back of the truck effectively.

VEX AI Vision Sensor

When we ran through our tests, our team figured that we would like a sensor that could better demonstrate how our product would work if it was implemented onto trucks. This is where we landed with the VEX AI Vision sensor. The VEX AI Vision sensor we believed would have been able to detect color from a farther distance away, and with the usage of AI, it'd be able to display what it captured on the display screen. This, however, was not the case as when we started messing with it, it was not able to detect color the way we intended it to do. While it can be useful for other projects, this sensor did not turn out to be what we needed, and we decided to stick with the optical sensor.

Technical Sketches

Here are the three technical sketches of each different component that detail their dimensions, their weight, and the casing that encloses most of these components. These will be the three main components that will be used to demonstrate the functionality of our prototype.

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