Team 8- The Roomba (v 2.0)

 

 

Our Robot:

What does it have that sets it apart? For one, it has a giant extending arm-

 

 

 

On the end of it, we mounted a distance sensor (which was just barely usable given the dimensions of the field). With two layers of heavy output filtering and a lot of non-denominational praying, it was able to (more or less) accurately sense whether another robot was blocking the four point goal. Since our strategy was to shoot balls across the field, any information on what the other robot was doing was pretty critical.

By exploiting the laws of physics, the arm is able to unpack and pack up pretty efficiently.

 

 

 

The next interesting feature is the cannon. We have an extremely compact ball-storing, ball-loading, and ball-shooting setup. Because the cannon is mounted right above the ground, we can use just one axle of two wheels to shoot. Despite its compact size, it shoots fast enough that the ball does not experience noticeable veering over its path. A servo behind the cannon delivers balls from two storage areas into the cannon.

 

 

 

A wall-gripping arm- To counteract recoil from firing and prevent any robot from moving us from their four box, we have a servo-controlled arm that locks down on the wall.

 

Here is our bot showing itself off:

 

 

Our Strategy:

We drive out to the opponent’s four goal and latch on to the wall. Then we deploy the distance sensor arm. If the opponent is sitting in front of the goal, we wait to fire. If the wait time, however, is more than 10 seconds, we unlatch from the wall and drive to our two bin, dumping all of our balls there.