2.s007 Design and Manufacturing I: Autonomous Machines Final Project
This was the first time I've really went through the entire engineering design process from start to finish on my own and it was a very rewarding experience! On top of that, I was able to win second runner-up in the final competition.
Each round of play is 3 minutes long.
No part of your robot(s) can move prior to game play.
Control is a mix of autonomous mode and manual mode with no limit on the number of times you may switch between the two modes of control.
Challenges completed via autonomous mode are awarded two times the points awarded for manual mode. To indicate autonomous mode, you must set down your controller. If you fail to set down your controller, you will be awarded points as if you were operating in manual mode (even if you are operating in autonomous mode).
Because the task that had the most points was the lunar module liftoff, I decided that would be my focus. Points are awarded by pulling the handle horizontally, which launches the modules vertically up that have weights attached to them. In order for my robot to be able to pull a lot of weight, it needed a strong drivetrain. That is why when picking my motors, I decided to pick torque over speed.
To grab onto the Lunar Module handle, I designed 2 claws that are controlled by a servo motor. On one side, the hooks were connected to the servo with sheet metal mounts I also designed. On the otherside, they were mounted to the robot with another sheet metal mount and were allowed to rotate with the addition of a metal shaft. Looking back, this design worked fine however metal on metal can create a lot of friction and instead I should've included a bearing in my design.
L298N DC Motor Driver 4 DC Motors Arduino Nano Waveshare Line Tracking Sensor
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