Documentation

SubSystems

System Strategy

🌶️ Navigation and Movement🌶️ 

Hal moves using a two-wheel differential drive system, guided by ultrasonic sensors that detect walls, corners, and obstacles. A middle spinning bumper allows the robot to rotate while maintaining alignment against a wall, ensuring precise turns.

• Ultrasonic sensor-based wall detection: Hal aligns itself based on a close-distance threshold, ensuring it remains parallel to walls during key positioning steps.

• Freely spinning bumper: This central component allows accurate in-place rotations without shifting the robot’s position, making turns smoother and more reliable.

• Rotary encoder-driven turning: The encoder, connected via a 100:10 gear ratio, enables Hal to precisely measure and execute rotational movements. Hal can stay still while its encoder and wheel assembly turn 90 degrees, maintaining orientation accuracy.

🌶️ Cooking and Orientation🌶️

Hal is designed to retrieve, process, and prepare food autonomously.

• Ingredient positioning & alignment: Before any movement, Hal ensures its top structure is aligned to the encoder's zero position using a servo-actuated pin. This guarantees that every subsequent turn is based on a known reference point.

• Ingredient drop-off: Once aligned, Hal moves its servo-arms to dispense ingredients into the pot at the correct moment.

• Controlled movement after orientation: By backing up and turning to pre-calculated encoder values, Hal ensures reliable state transitions during cooking and navigating through the kitchen.

🌶️ Food Delivery and Launcher Arm🌶️

After food preparation, Hal moves to the serving area to accurately place the ingredients into the pot.

• Servo-powered launcher arm: Instead of using a simple drop-off system, Hal features a servo-controlled launcher arm that extends to accurately place food into its designated location.

• Precision-controlled motion: The launcher’s movement is adjusted based on encoder-based positioning and timers to ensure the pot reaches the burner to ensure the food is delivered properly.

• Final serving state: Once the food is placed, Hal completes its task and awaits the next cycle.

🌶️ Celebration & Jalapeño Movement 🌶️

After 2 minutes and 10 seconds of operation in the kitchen, Hal performs a celebration sequence to signify the completion of its cooking cycle.

• Spinning Celebration: Hal rotates in place using its differential drive system, creating a dynamic motion.

• Servo Pin Oscillation: Throughout the celebration, a servo-actuated pin moves back and forth, ensuring visible movement and engagement.

• Built-in Dance Effect: This sequence is pre-programmed into Hal’s state machine, triggering a signature movement routine before stopping.