Week 2

Robotics (CS, ME)

Introduction of Robotics, computer science, mechanical engineering

We kicked-started our second week by learning how robots function in the real world and how they contribute to making human life easier. Mechanical engineering is the study of machines, dynamics, force, and power. This industry includes the blueprinting of a specific machine and the supervision of the physical build. Computer science is the computation, automation, and information, and spans most if not all the sectors of the job industry, from computers to car AI. The core of computer science is programming through various programming languages, including C++ & Swift, and also includes the design of computer hardware. Robotics is a mix of mechanical engineering and computer science and we implied this merged concept by building and coding two robots that would potentially assist in navigating humans through exits to a safe assembly point during a period of disaster. We were united as a team by splitting tasks of building, coding, and testing the robots while also simultaneously working on our IEEE paper and website!

Design process

Redbot: The physcial build was built according to the instrucitons and needed no modifications. The code of the Redbot was already given, and it only needed verification in order to see how the robot functions and if the code interacts with the robot without any problems. This project needed the least time and the least work to complete.

Arduino robot: The Arduino robot was built according to the instructions presented by the build kit. A few modifications were made to the robot, which were that the single motor that could only move forward was replaced by a double motor that could move both forward and backwards. In addition, the battery pack was switched from 2 double A batteries to 4 double A batteries. We put cardboard on top of the robot in order to raise the platform to put the circuit on top of the robot and connected the wires to the appropriate ports. The code was given, so the code only needed to be copied and imputed into the robot. To make the project harder, the code had to be modified to be able to fit the robot's characteristics.

Virtual Simulation: This code was built by scratch, so it took longer to complete. As there was no physical build to it, more time was able to be implemented into the code. The downsides to the simulation were that sometimes, the simulator would not implement the code, and would stop in the middle of the course without turning.

half completion of the robot

Red Bot

The completed Robot we build by hand and code it to make it work and move. It was a very difficult experiment because if one part messed up then the whole robot won't work. We connect the circuits, plugged in the battery, builded up the robot, and tested it to make it work.

connected red bot circuit to motors

Complete set up of the Red Bot

This is the complete set up of the red robot, we build this by hands, it was successful after we tested it and made sure it works as the instructions.