Robotics
(CS, ME)
INTRODUCTION
Robotics:
Robotics utilizes principle of both computer science and engineering to design, construct, operate, and use robots. Robots can perceive the environment and carry out their function according to their environment. Robotics' importance is ever-increasing as human understanding of robots, and their potential use in daily or complex functions, increases.
Computer Science:
Computer science is the study of computers, computing, and the practical and theoretical applications of computers. Principles of mathematics, engineering, and logic establish the foundation for computer science. As we venture further into the Digital Age, computers continue to be heavily integrated into every industry in the modern economy.
Project Description:
The team was tasked with constructing two robots: one that would have the ability to exit and lead people out of building in case of a natural disaster and one that would locate survivors. With the first robot, the team was provided line sensors, ultrasonic sensors, and bumper switches. With the second robot, the team was provided touch sensors and an infrared thermometers. We were tasked to program our robots to navigate through a course that we made.
DESIGN PROCESS
VIRTUAL WORLDS ROBOT
The virtual robot navigated the course with a bumper switch. If the bumper switch was bumped it would turn 90 degrees left and if the bumper switch was bumped again in the next second it would turn 180 degrees because that would mean there is a corner. This took us a while to figure out and our robot would always do a 90 degree turn then a 180 degree turn which led to it not being able to navigate the course. In order to fix this, we added a piece of code so if a certain amount of time elapsed after doing the 90 degree turn the next turn would be a 90 degree turn. This made the robot not 100 percent reliable. A way to improve the robot would have been to incorporate sensor fusion, for example, line sensors would have made it more reliable of a robot. The robot we used only had one color sensor though which made it difficult to follow the line.
TAMIYA - TRACKED ROBOT
Initially, we were tasked with building a single gear box. The gear box was not included in the final robot, but it was a good guiding experience for building the double gear box in the final robot.
The second motor our team made was a Type-B double motor. The Type-B gear box had an RPM of 345 , and after just checking the spin on the gears, we quickly realized it was too fast. It's quickness would cause the robot to continue moving before the program could give it commands. After, we transitioned to a Type-D motor with an RPM of 38. The RPM of the motor allowed for the robot to function at a speed which the robot could respond accordingly at. Additionally, the initial motor's torque was too small for the weight of the robot, and lowering the RPM increased the torque to properly facilitate movement.
Another issue we faced in the designing process was with the ultrasonic sensors and their interaction with the motors. When the IF and ELSE statements were initially used to tell the motors which action to do depending on the distance from an object, the system crashed and was unable to calculate the distance. To resolve this problem we had to include a small delay after the command that makes the robot go forward and then after the delay command also include the function that stops the motion of the motors. By putting a small delay this guaranteed that the motion was still smooth and the robot's ultrsonic sensor was taking around 5 readings a second. This frequency of readings was sufficient to guarantee the robot would indentify any object while moving.
Our Tamiya robot uses the same principle as the vitual robot for making its turns. Once the robot detects any object in its path it wil make a 90 degrees turn, then if another object is detected within 5 seconds from the last turn instead of turning 90 degrees again, what would make the robot do the same path it was doing before but in an opposite direction, it makes a 180 degrees turn. In the case a second object is detected after 5 seconds of the last turn we consider it to be far enough from the original path. Therefore, the counter resets and it makes a second consecutive 90 degrees turn.
REDBOT
The Redbot was constructed with line sensors and bumper switches to navigate survivors out of a building in the case of a natural disaster.
While programming the Redbot to follow a path with turns, the robot ran too quickly to turn. At first, we turned down the Robot's entire speed, but it was to slow to move itself. Instead of changing the overall speed, only the turning speed was increased for the robot to make the curves.
CODES
ROBOT DEPLOYMENTS
Recording #2.mp4 Virtual Worlds Robot
IMG_5936.MOVRedBot
IMG_1159.MOVTracked Robot
RESEARCH PAPER
PROJECT EVALUATION