Week 6

The overall accomplishments that was done this week include removing the breadboard and setting up the wiring for the overall robot, and also means that the robot is fully mobile. This wiring is not complete, and still needs some adjustments in order to get everything looking better. Also, there was more integration in terms of the overall communication between the Raspberry Pi and Arduino for the motors and other parts of the robot.

Accomplishments:

1. Mechanical
   1. Did design calculations for the spring, calculating the velocity of launch and the requisite spring constant for a particular extension.
   2. Tried a new hybrid spring mechanism by combining several springs and mounting on a large washer.
2. Electrical
   1. Created protoboards for the Arduino and all electrical connections to have the overall structure be more permanent
   2. Tested connections from the P3 base for supplying power to the overall device
3. Software
   1. Added buttons to the GUI for loading the bean bags, locking and unlocking the magnet, and manual adjustment of the spring motor
4. Integration
   1. Integrated the Arduino with the Raspberry Pi GUI to be able to be controlled more easily

Challenges:

1. Mechanical
   1. Was unable to reach the requisite launch distance even after new hybrid spring was created.
   2. Calculating the requisite spring constant K, was involved, by found a good lower bound by using energy conservation method.
2. Electrical
   1. Wiring the protoboard connections had a few errors in the soldering process that needed to be fixed
3. Software
   1. Getting the Arduino to correctly talk to the Raspberry Pi as there were a few connection issues
4. Integration
   1. Overall connection issues between the Arduino and Raspberry Pi

Next Week

1. Mechanical
   1. Reverse the orientation of the wood mounts on the P3
   2. Use more motor torque by pivoting closer to motor center
   3. Make a new hybrid spring/purchase a new spring based on the calculations we have made
2. Electrical
   1. Be able to detect bean bags on the launcher to know when it is empty
   2. Neaten up the wiring
3. Software
   1. Interface the sonar sensors with the robot so that it stops moving when detecting an object in front of it
      1. Be able to override the sonar sensors if necessary
4. Integration
   1. Integrate the sonar into the movement system