Competitive Autonomous Robot
Project Overview
As part of the required Mechanical Engineering 2110 course, Creative Decisions and Design, students work in teams of four to design and build an autonomous robot to compete in a final competition. The project is guided by several design constraints: robots must adhere to specified height, length, and width limits, and their power sources are limited to components provided in a kit, such as motors, sensors, solenoids, and other mechatronic elements, along with additional power options like mousetraps, gravity, and rubber bands. The robots must operate autonomously, controlled by an Arduino and code written by the students. Each round of the competition places four robots on a track, where they compete to complete tasks that involve pushing, pulling, and lifting to score more points than their competitors. Robots have a 40-second time limit per round, after which all power to the track is cut. Each semester, the competition features a unique theme, and during my semester, the theme was Kung Fu Panda. Our tasks were designed around this theme and included:
- Raising Po Panda: Teams had to lift a Po Panda figurine above 3 feet and place it onto the rotating Jade Palace Platform at the top of the track, earning the highest points.
- Jade Scroll Collection: Robots needed to retrieve their team's color-coded Jade Scroll from a rotating platform. Collecting the wrong scroll incurred penalties, requiring precise sensor implementation to differentiate colors.
- Bao Bun Gathering: Points were awarded for every Bao Bun collected from the center and placed in a designated bowl on the track.
- Tai Lung Knockout: Teams scored additional points by knocking a Tai Lung Tiger figurine out of their zone and into a competitor's zone.
- Bunny Villager Protection: Points were also earned by ensuring that bunny villager figurines within the team’s zone remained unharmed.
Finished CAD for the final robot design.
An example of what some of the mechanisms deployed looks like. Drawer slides served as an extension mechanism to reach the rotating center of the track. A solenoid retracted and a pneumatic actuator propelled the drawer slides to the center of the track. 2 arms swing out to knock over both our Tai Lung figurine as well as the oponent's to the left as pictured. The bunny villager figurine remains upright and protected from opposing robots. Furthermore, reaching the center of the rotating track enables the robot to reach the Jade Scroll and Bao Buns.
This is what the competition looks like, 4 robots are placed on one large track.
A trial run of the bot accomplishing several of the tasks prior to competition. Po is raised above 3 feet to the top of the track, Bao Buns are collected from the center into the team's respective bowl, the Tai Lung Figurine is defeated and knocked out of the team's zone, and the Bunny Villager remains protected. The team's robot placed in the top 32 out of 64 teams in the competition.