ME 218B Winter 2022
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The task is to design and build a machine that can autonomously navigate around the Arcade and deposit shrunken Skee-Balls into a basket located at the end of the Arcade.
The Arcade consists of two lanes: Team A Lane and Team B Lane. Each robot starts in a random orientation in the center of the Reload Zone. When the game starts, the robots have to indicate they are playing the game with an electro-mechanical mechanism and indicate that the game is over after 2 minutes and 18 seconds. At the beginning, the robot has to identify which lane it is in based on a unique frequency transmitted by an infrared beacon inside the basket. To score points, the perimeter of the robot has to be fully in a zone when it shoots or dunks a ball into the basket.
Upchuck
Upchuck was designed to rapidly shoot three point shots just outside of the reload zone. After aligning with the beacon and identifying the team, the robot would drive straight and stop just outside of the reload zone, shoot three shots, and drive straight back into the reload zone. The team would refill the hopper and press the reload button to have it go out and shoot again. This strategy maximized the number of three point attempts during the game, but required a reliable projectile launcher.
Upchuck was designed to rapidly shoot three point shots just outside of the reload zone. After aligning with the beacon and identifying the team, the robot would drive straight and stop just outside of the reload zone, shoot three shots, and drive straight back into the reload zone. The team would refill the hopper and press the reload button to have it go out and shoot again. This strategy maximized the number of three point attempts during the game, but required a reliable projectile launcher.
Phases of Development:
Phase 1
Conceptual Design
The team approached the project first by listing system requirements and brainstorming ideas. They then iterated through these ideas until a mature concept was agreed upon by all group members. Functional decomposition split up the system design into subsystems. The system requirements were further expanded to detail the requirements for each subsystem. Finally, to close out the conceptual design phase, the team created electrical schematics and state charts to detail the hardware and software interaction.
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Phase 2
Rapid Prototyping
The robot was split into subsystems based on software functionality: leader, launcher, and drivetrain. The leader microcontroller and associated sensor circuitry were prototyped to detect the beacon and send commands via SPI to the launcher and drivetrain microcontrollers. The launcher was initially prototyped to control the speed of a brushless DC motor. Closer to later checkpoints, the mechanical part of the launcher was built and tested with the Skee-Balls. The drivetrain and control law were prototyped and tested with the skeleton structure to see how the robot would drive on its own.
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Phase 3
Fabrication, Integration, and Testing
The team lasercut 1/8th inch Duron wood for the structure. Supports for most of the sensors and actuators were 3D Printed using PLA. The electrical components and associated software were integrated across PCBs and perfboards. During final testing, the forward and backward distances, speed of motor and RPM of flywheel were tuned such that we could shoot maximum 3 pointers during the game time.
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