5-2-2012

Today we presented our final robots to the class.  Everyone went and explained what their robot was supposed to do, what problems they encountered and gave a demonstration of the robot.  I felt that mine did fairly well considering everything.  The line followers were giving me trouble, the robot would shake back and forth as it moved along and sometimes it would get it self stuck and I would have to give it a bump to start it back up again.  The IR sensor and arm worked as intended though, which I was happy about.  I have a short video of the robot below.  Since I didn't have a miniature garbage can for it to sense and pick up I used my hand to let it know there was an object there.

4-30-2012

Today's class was dedicated to working on our project two.  Today I was having trouble getting my line followers to work correctly.  For a while the right and center line followers were not giving good values between white and black.  Eventually I saw that part of the sensor was sticking out of the plastic case, so I pushed it back inside and then they started giving better values.  But they still act strange when I put the robot on the table.  It would just sit still for a few seconds and then shoot forward without stopping or making turns.  I did find out what value the IR sensor would have to read in order to stop the robot in a position so the claw can grab an object.  I also think that I will need to slow the robot down.  I think that is a reason for it not making turns or stopping in time, it's moving too fast.  I will need to play with the values going to the motors until I find one that will have the robot going at a more appropriate speed.

4-25-2012

Today we spent the beginning of class learning about the different types of gears and how to do different calculations involving gears.  The rest of class was used for us to work on our robots for our project two.  I finished the wiring for all the components for my robot.  I started to to work on getting the arm on top of my robot to work, when to two servomotors at the base of the arm stopped working.  It looked like the connector the goes from the servomotor to the actual arm was stripped out, and the other motor stopped working altogether.  I took them both off the arm and Dr. B took them home to look at them.  I also started writing the program for other parts of the robot.  I forgot to take some pictures of my progress today.

4-23-2012

Today class was devoted to working on our project #2.  I finally came up with an idea for the project.  I'm going to have the robot follow a line, while having a sensor on the side that will look for "garbage cans."  When the robot finds one it will stop and an arm will extend and grab the can, lift it up and dump it into a bin, then put the can back on the ground and continue down the path.  The real world application for this would to have the robot follow a curb or sidewalk, looking for trash cans.  Dr. B gave me a pre-constructed arm to use to grab the cans.  I mounted the arm today as well as attached the line follower sensors and IR sensor to find the cans.  I will need a separate battery to run the arm because it will draw too much current from the board.  I still need to wire everything into the board as well.   Hopefully I can do that next class period, then begin to program it.  I also cleaned up the wiring involved with the Banebot, switch and battery.

Cleaned up my previous wiring

Mounted arm, line follower and IR sensor

IR sensor

Arm

Arm

4-18-2012

Today we started class by learning about pneumatics.  We spent about an hour learning about the different types of linear and rotary actuators and a few of the different types of valves.  After the lesson we worked on our robots for the rest of the class.

LCD display

IR receiver

4-16-2012

Today's class was dedicated to working on our robots.  I worked on getting the HB 25 and Banebot wired and programed.  I also wired in a master switch to turn on and off the power from the new battery to the board and motors.  The Banebot worked fine, but the HB 25 gave me trouble.  Dr. B came and tried to figure out why it wouldn't turn the motor.  We checked the program, wiring and the motor controller itself but it turned out to be that we had to start with the master power and switch on the board both off, then turn on the master power, wait a few seconds then turn on the board and it would work.  No body knows why it did that.  After that I got my LCD display for the next project.

4-11-2012

Today we took a test at the start of class.  Then we were free to work on our assignments.  I picked out the new robot I wanted to work with for rest of the semester.  It is basically a shell with two motors, and we will wire in the components.  We were given a Parallax HB 25 motor controller and a well as a Banebot motor controller.  Our assignment is to wire in and program them to each run one of the wheels on the robot.  During class I disassembled the ultrasonic sensor from the previous assignment and moved the circuit board from my smaller robot to the bigger one.  I then attached the wires I'll need onto the HB 25.  That was as far as I got today, but I brought home the robot to work on before next class.

New robot body

New robot body

HB 25 (far left), connection wires, HB 25 cover and Banebot (orange)

HB 25

New robot body with circuit board mounted, HB 25 in cover (right), and Banebot (bottom)