Pusher Testing Successful!

The new pusher design was laser cut and mounted to the robots today for a quick trial run. They were able to control the ball effectively scoring with little difficulty while not in the corners.

Previously: Remote Control Enabled

Next: Refine Remote Accelerometer Control and implement Controller.

Pusher: Designed to integrate with current 3pi expansion board and newly define standards.
Specs: Front center point circle radius = 2"
Front circle arc angle = 45 degrees
Forward extension of device <= 40mm from center point of mounting hole
Controller: Designed to attach Firefly for more precise control of accelerometer values

Remote Controlled Robot

Our team was able to successfully remote control a 'player' around a small slalom course.

Previously: equipped 'players' with permanent fixtures for FF nodes.

This was achieved with only the accelerometer reading from another firefly which we will refer to as a 'remote' over rt-link.

The code allows for differential steering control which allows the robot to move forward while turn at the same time. Due to the complex nature of RPY (roll pitch yaw) acceleration, the code was simplified to allow for complex motion with less computational stress on the embedded processor.

A system of fail safes were included to account for accelerometer errors or loss of communication.

Next: Design and implement peripherals for remotes and pusher as well as international standards and specifications.

The Rules Change

Due to technical challenges which lead to slippage in our project, the specifications have been refined to the following:

"The plan is to have one out the three bots as autonomous with the cmucam on board (basically the goalkeeper will be autonomous) but the 2 players will be FF (firefly) accelerometer controlled."

More details on specifics to come.

Bloggers

Blog is made. Retroactive posts to come of our work so far.