Pictures of our robot

We like to show hugeness, so we used big capacitors. The bigger the better.

Robot name: " Dr. Whackenscore"

Team Members: Garrett Barter, Elie Krevat, Dan Kwon

Go to main 6.270 page with this link

Facts about our robot:
-physical features: rotating arm with 360 degrees of freedom, two motor driven wheels, three support wheels. The rotating arm can be extended with a servo and is counterbalanced with three batteries. It takes three motors to drive our arm.
-size:about 10 inches wide by 10 inches long by 9 inches high
-electronics used: three shaft encoders, one on each wheel, one for the arm; one CDS cell to measure the start light; three photoresistor/LED pairs to line follow; switches on the front and back of our robot to determine if we hit a wall; SHARP distance sensor.
-Drive used: differential steering
-code features: A " SmartDrive" function that allowed the robot to travel straight (compensating for the natural swerve caused by differing motors). Code also had the ability to accurately swing the arm to a specific angle at any specified speed. ": SpeedRotate" allowed us to make a banked turn at any specified angle at any speed. We also made a software shaft encoder for our arm
-note that it is very hard to have an arm w/360 degrees of freedom b/c it is hard to wire sensors on the arm due to wire tangling, plus you have to mount an IR beacon through the center of rotation. Also the arm has to be decently long to be effective and powering this is a challenge.

How did our robot fare in competition?

-Why did/didn't we do well?
Our robot qualified and won our match in Round I.
In Round II we plugged in a servo, burned it and then didn't find out til we lost in Round III, bummer huh. -Did our robot meet our expectations?
Yes.

A description of your strategy and how you developed the strategy

After we oriented ourselves using the IR beacon, we first attempt to swipe the middle ball to our side with our arm. Then we move to the opponent's side of the table and whack balls to our side of the table. In case we hit the wall with our wall or a robot we try to correct our position with hit detection and time-out code.

Links to our code: Competition code