Sophia Vandycke
MARS ROVER
The final project for Robotics II was to build an autonomous robot that could navigate a rocky terrain (Mars) to find colored pillars (soil samples) and accurately detect their color. The image above is of the robot my team and I created. The arms on the robot fit around the pillars to align the color sensor. Due to the multidisciplinary learning opportunities of this project, my team decided for each member to step out of their comfort zone to develop new skills. On this project I assisted with some mechanical design and designed the rocket launcher, but as a mechanical engineer, I focused on the software for the color sensor. Since the color sensor was very sensitive to ambient lights, I created an algorithm that allowed the code to make an educated guess of the color based on the ratio of RGB values. By using ratios instead of values, the code was able to accurately detect the color under varying light conditions.
The point system for the project was divided into two parts, reaching the pillar and correctly reading the color. Since we knew our robot was not going to reach one of the targets, we decided to attempt to reach the last pillar by launching a Nerf dart (rocket) at it. The rocket launcher is simple, consisting of a housing, a spring and a pin. To load the rocket the spring is drawn back and is held down by a pin inserted through a hole. The rocket is then placed in the housing. The pin is connected to a linkage attached to a servo. When the servo moves the pin is drawn out and the spring returns to its relaxed position. This action launches the rocket. Unfortunately, we ran out of time to calibrate the rocket launcher to hit the target but left it on the robot as an accessory.
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