ABU Robocon 2018 (Nationals)
OBJECTIVE
There were 2 robots for the competition - one manually controlled while the other was completely autonomous. The aim of the competition was to pick the balls (of given dimensions) from the rack via manual robot and hand it over to the autonomous robot. The autonomous robot then travels to the allowed regions from where it throws the ball through the vertical Rings (see Video). Passing through the ring from a closer region (Video-1) fetched 10 points and from a further away region (Video-2) fetched 20 points. 2 teams would compete at a time and had to score more than the other in a stipulated time to win the match.
DESIGN
The chassis was made of aluminium and trangilar in shape for both the robots. Omni-wheels were used for ease of motion in any direction. Use of pneumatics was also common in both.
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The manual robot was controlled using a wired PlayStation controller. Balls and the rack were self-made as per the regulations of the competition. While pneumatics was used here to lift the rack from the ground, 'rack and pinion' mechanism was used to select the balls from the rack as well as transfer the ball from the manual robot to the autonomous one.
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The autonomous robot used line-following algorithm with a series of IR sensors. Aluminium was used to make the arms that threw the balls. The lengths of the arms were calculated and tested multiple times. The arms were powered using the force of pneumatics. Sharp-IR sensors were used on the robot to understand which of the 3 arms of the robot was ready for firing the ball through the hole.
CONTROLS
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Both the robots had a triangular structure with 3 omni-wheels in each (aligned at 60 angle from each other). The logic was then fed such that using theses individual wheels the robot could go in any direction in the plane without changing orientation. The code and logic for the same has been uploaded in the Git account (link).
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The manual robot was interfaced with the PlayStation controller using Arduino. The speed of the motors were controlled using L298D motor drivers. Pneumatics too was controlled using Arduino interfaced with the pneumatic valves.
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The autonomous bot had 2 series of IR sensors to follow the lines on the mat properly. PID algorithm was also deployed to reduce the error to negligible while the robot moves as well as positions itself. The pneumatics and the motors again are controlled using arduino Mega. A connection of bottles was filled with pressurised air is stored such that the required arms get adequate force to complete the task. These pressures were precalculated and tested for precise throwing. There were 2 linear actuators and 1 rotary actuator to throw the ball through the loop from 3 different positions.
TEAM ROBOCON for me
Perhaps the best learning experience I had on campus. The preparations started in August 2017 and the competition was held in Pune, India (March 2018). These 7 months gave me the much needed all-round development - from leading the mechanical division of the team to handling the finances and procuring funds. 'The team' itself was the best part about this entire challenge - a group of 14 highly motivated and hard-working individuals who loved robotics. Each one had something to offer and took the responsibility afront. We scored 1-1 and could not ace the competition, but the learning outcome was far more superior for me. This gave, not only me but the entire team, the confidence to delve deeper into more diverse projects of robotics like the quadcopter, the quadruped and others.