Week 3: Robotics

1. Students will train a Zumi AI robot to navigate a course that simulates exiting a damaged building.

2. Students will build and modify a Tamiya Tracked vehicle to navigate a course that simulates exiting a damaged building. Use the vibe coding method to program the Tamiya vehicle to utilize be equipped with

   1. Red board 

2. 2. Ultrasonic Sensor

2. 3. Bumper sensor

3. Students will program an Arduino-based robot to follow lines and avoid obstacles using a touch sensor and a line follower

4. Students will program an AI-based humanoid robot to locate and identify victims in a damaged building

5. Using VexIQ robot kits, create a device to autonomously create a simple polymer (GAK) given the raw ingredients

Vibe Coding - the practice of building software by describing what you want in plain language to an AI, rather than writing code line-by-line

Our AI prompts to Claude- 1. Simulates exiting a damaged building. Use the vibe coding method program the Tamiya vehicle to utilize be equipped with: ATmega328P Red Board

TB6612 Motor Driver

HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Sensor

KY-002 Bumper Sensor

Please help me write the Arduino code for each board based on these requirements.

2. improve this code, I want a full stop when distance sensor detects somthign within 10cm.

For the most part, our plan was to get things done individually and attempt to finish everything by the deadline. We also would set goals for how much we needed to get done, especially on the research paper

• How did you incorporate the Design strategies from the textbook (Ch 21-26)?

Our team incorporated textbook design strategies (Ch 21-26) through structured task decomposition. For Concurrent Engineering (Ch 21-22): Emily designed the Tamiya robot while Derinsu built the Vex IQ. Nolan executed parallel programming for multiple platforms, supported by Becca, Derinsu, and Rocco. Additionally, for Configuration Management & Documentation (Ch 23-24): Rocco managed web updates to maintain project control, while Becca led the technical research paper.This cross-functional approach optimized our design pipeline and streamlined final system integration.

• Describe the process your group used to accomplish the task.

The process for our group was: trial and error. For many of our projects, we faced different problems, and we would backtrack and redo the project like our EZ-robot code. 

• Describe the principles you used to build the project and apply to the engineering fields you studied.

We used computer science principles like coding and vibe coding as well as going back to electrical engineering with wiring on the Tamiya and the arduino kit. We had to be able to track where the wires went and where they came from in order to be able to code them effectively. 

• Each member’s role in the project.

Becca: Wrote the research paper and helped setting up and programming the arduino robot.

Derinsu: Helped setting up and programming the arduino robot. Also, built the Vex IQ and helped with the programming part.

Nolan: Programmed the Zumi, Vex IQ and the JD Humanoid.

Rocco: Helped with Tamiya, the research paper, and some parts of programming. Additionally, he made all the edits of this week on our website.

Emily: Designed and completed the Tamiya robot.

• Describe the successes and the obstacles your team encountered and how your team overcame the obstacles.

Successes:

• Vex IQ: the liquids did not spill, we had slime at the end, the robot works autonomous, the cups return to their original state

• Zumi: The whole Zumi robot was successful in avoiding obstacles and reached its purpose

• Tamiya: Tamiya was successful in terms of the design, programming, and fulfilling its purpose.

• Arduino: The Arduino coding was successful for the black line following part.

• JD Humanoid: The Robot was able to move and track an object.

Obstacles:

• Vex IQ: Our mixer kept getting stuck and stopping midway while mixing, especially because of how thick the slime was. In order to solve this, we realigned the gears for smoother movement and we fixed the mixer.

• Arduino: The bumpers were not working properly. The program was sensing that the bumpers were hit, but the robot was supposed to move backwards and turn counterclockwise and it did not. We tried many codes, but we still could not get it to work.

• JD Humanoid: The robot was not successful in walking towards the tracked object. We tried vibe coding to solve this problem, but we could not solve it.

• What would your next steps be to improve your project?

Since most of the projects work on rather simple code, the next step would be to add more sensors to improve performance or fix the fact that some of the robots never go dead straight. Of course, there is that one exception where we would actually need to make the robot work first. 

• Describe the lessons that you learned and how you will apply these lessons to future projects.

Try to save time. Shortcuts are perfectly fine so long as they’re ethical decisions and don’t affect anyone/anything negatively. If it works better than the design requests, no one will care, because it works better than what people requested it to be. This will really come in handy next week when modelling and designing a rocket, as shortcuts in a rocket are few and far between, but save massive amounts of time. 

• Knowing what you know now, how would you start your project differently?

Instead of trying to code by ourselves, we would probably only vibecode for the whole week to both save time and make things easier on ourselves. Coding by logic is much harder, and we found that out the hard way when our JD humanoid didn’t even start working.