Our goal:

Our goal for this project is to create a couple of robots that will save people from a building that is being destroyed and is collapsing. The robots will use sensors to navigate a course that simulates exiting a damaged building and will locate survivors to bring them to safety.

Red Bot

Once we had finished making the Red bot, it was time to start the coding part of the process. The program that we would use would be Arduino. We would use the Sparkfun website to copy the code for each command such as the directional driving as well as the different sensors that we would need. The command that we would try to implement was the line follower command. We would use the line follower sensors to track a line that had a lighter gradient compared to the floor underneath for the Red bot to follow along the floor. The mechanical bumpers would also be used to sense when the robot would be hitting a wall. The robot would then receive the command to reverse and to turn to the right or left. Overall, these two important sensors will allow the robot to navigate a course to enter and exit the building that would be collapsing.

Link for the Red Bot constructing and coding instructions -

Construction Manual: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/assembly-guide-for-redbot-with-shadow-chassis/all#introduction

Coding Manual: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/experiment-guide-for-redbot-with-shadow-chassis/all#introduction

Link to the Research Paper: Research Paper Link

Link to the Trello: Trello Link

Reflection of the entire project:

Roles -

All 5 members in our group contributed to this project due to the fact that there was a substantial amount of work to do in under a week. The Red Bot, as well as the Tamiya Tracked Bot were constructed by Ryan, Teymour, and Tavion. As we were making the Tamiya Tracked Vehicle, which was taking a while, Tavion started to code the Red Bot. Ryan and Donovan started to attempt to code the Tamiya as the rest of the group decided what the virtual world would look like. Once we had come up with the design idea, Donovan created the virtual world. Then, Ryan coded the virtual bot to navigate the course that had been created by Donovan. As all of these tasks were being finished, Teymour and Ziya were writing the research paper. As the design process was unfolding, Teymour worked on creating this website that would document all of the steps taken by the entire team. Overall, the team worked well together and were able to split the workload evenly amongst themselves.

Was the project successful? -

The project in general was challenging for our group at first because we felt overwhelmed by all of the different assignments that we would need to complete. Once we sat down and assigned different pieces of work to each group member, we felt more organized and were able to complete the work effectively. The most challenging part of this project for our group was definitely the coding aspect due to the fact that our group did not have much experience with coding in general. We slowly figured out what websites and programs to use and eventually learned the basics of coding.

The project was not very successful in terms of the 2 robots' functions that we had created. For the Red Bot, the mechanical bumpers worked and were able to sense when the robot would bump into a wall. The sensor that did not work though, was the line sensor. The line sensors were very inconsistent in actually sensing the line to follow. The reason for this was its placement of it, which we constantly altered. Our group kept moving the sensors closer and closer to the ground so that they would be within the range to sense the line. In terms of the Tamiya Tracked Vehicle, the sensors did not work due to the fact that the wiring was wrong. We rewired it multiple times, and it kept failing. In the end, we didn't have enough time to keep rewiring it so therefore it was the least successful robot that we made. The third bot that we coded was the virtual bot, which was the most successful of the 3. It was able to complete our entire online course without encountering any issues. Overall, this project has taught us that time management is extremely important when we have a big project, and that there will always be many issues that we will encounter along the way.

Even though we weren't able to make all 3 robots completely successful, if we were to have more time for this project, we would've been able to conduct a little more research on the machines and how to construct them. We also would've been able to learn how to use the Arduino coding platform in more depth which would have meant that the code could've been more successful and precise. Overall, this short project has taught our team that time management is key to a successful design and has taught us that as an engineer, we will always come across obstacles on the way to success.

Design Process -

1. Define the problem.

2. Generate alternative concepts.

3. Evaluate and select a concept.

4. Detail the design.

5. Design defense.

6. Manufacture and testing.

7. Evaluation of performance.

8. Preparing the final design report.