Card Playing Robot

This robot was designed to help children aged 4-5 years old learn how to count. The goal was to design a robot that could not only play a simple numbers and counting game with children, but also interact with the children with a realistic hand. The robot would hold up a random number of fingers on its left hand from 1-5. Children then need to find the corresponding number card and place it in the robot's right hand. The robot then brings the card up to its "eye," or camera, and reads the QR code on the card. If the card is correct, it nods in approval and gives a thumbs up. If the card is incorrect, it shakes its head, letting the student know that the card is wrong. The robot was programmed in Python using the embedded IDE on the camera, which was connected to a servo shield that controlled 16 servo motors.

The camera afixed to the robot has a built in Integrated Development Environment (IDE). On the IDE, I programmed a python file that is able to track the centroid of objects (in this case, a golf ball) as they move via color tracking. The camera sends the coordinates of the centroid to the myRIO microprocessor through UART communication, and the myRIO runs a LabView code that then moves the camera so that the ball remains in the center of the frame.