The objective of the project was to write code to allow a robot to navigate a wooden obstacle course and pick up different colored balls. Different groups competed against each other in a contest, scored based on the speed of completing the course and the amount of balls picked up, as well as the ability to avoid obstacles.
Strategy
The group was provided with a premade robot and starter code. Notable features of the robot include a gyroscope and accelerometer, LADAR, and OpenMV camera. The robot was also able to interface with cameras around the room, determining its position in the course. A picture of the robot is included below.
Robot inside the course
The group used a state machine approach to control the robot. Different states were created for driving to specific waypoints, wall following, and picking either orange or purple balls. This was then implemented in C using Code Composer Studio, and uploaded to the robot's board. A LabView Virtual Instrument was created to monitor the robot's progress throughout the course, and record the location of any balls picked up. Finally, Linux code was used to establish a connection between the robot and the cameras around the room, as well as LabView.
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