Baby Got Baxter

The Problem Statement

How This Works

The CARRYER (CRATE Acquiring Robot that Raises Your Entities Readily) is designed to work head-to-head against an opponent, stacking the most magnetic CRATEs into the designated tower in the designated 2 minutes and 18 seconds of time. Throughout this period of time, the robot can move freely but must–at some point–complete the steps of IR detection, movement, and engagement of the lifting mechanism.

Detection

IR Sensor

In order to start our game, the robot must indicate to the referees which side it is starting from. Each of the STACKs that the robot is stacking CRATEs into is marked by a modulated IR beacon, with emitters located 31 cm above the surface of the Arena. The Baby Got Baxter (BGB) is provided with the instruction to rotate in place, and upon sensing the appropriate, corresponding IR frequency, adjusts the servo motor to indicate which side of the arena the robot is sitting on.

Visual Feedback

Side Indication

Since one of the assigned tasks to the robot is to indicate which side of the arena it is starting from, the BGB uses a servo motor to change the position of the flag, showing any viewer that it understands whether it is sitting on the blue or green side of the arena.

Movement

Driving and Maneuvering

Once the robot indicates which side of the arena it is starting from, the robot is able to spring into action. The robot is powered by two DC motors to drive itself about the arena. However, to have some semblance of navigation, the BGB uses a 5 Channel Infrared Reflective PIR Sensor Module to follow the black tape placed on the arena floor. The Infrared Reflective sensor shines a light and detects the reflection back into the sensor, using this sensor reading to determine whether it is accurately following the black tape. BGB is designed to self-adjust, increasing the duty cycle of the motors in the event that the sensors are indicating that the robot is off-centered.

Lift

Cascade Lift

In order to access the levels of the STACKs above the first level, the BGB utilizes a cascade lift to raise the magnetic CRATE to the predetermined level of the STACK. In order to ensure accurate placement, the robot uses a servo motor to extend the magnetized CRATE 90 degrees out into the STACK.

Communication is the key to success! This project gets incredibly chaotic and it can be difficult if multiple people need to work on aspects of the same code. It’s incredibly important to include comments in all code and even flesh out pseudocode EARLY so that another team member can read and understand the basic functionality of your code!

Gem of Wisdom

We benefited a ton because we didn’t have one person work strictly on the software, electrical, mechanical, etc. Everyone was involved in everything which was great for our learning and understanding as mechatronics students; however, it caused pains because there was often not a default leader of a task. I think it would be a great idea to have someone in charge of a specific part (as a manager) so they would have the responsibility to see the progress while everyone works on the part.

Gem of Wisdom

We had a lot of fun because we didn’t take our failures too seriously! We knew we could weather out the storm and we ultimately utilized each set back as an opportunity to learn more!

Gem of Wisdom

Please Please Please start early on this project! If you go slow in the first weeks, the last weeks are going to be miserable.

Gem of Wisdom

Sometimes it’s worth it to get some sleep

Gem of Wisdom

Be ready to commit half of the project timeline to debugging

Gem of Wisdom

Baby Got Baxter

Baby Got Baxter in Action

Building a CARRYER that Transports CRATEs to STACKs

How This Works

IR Sensor

Side Indication

Driving and Maneuvering

Cascade Lift

We had a lot of fun because we didn’t take our failures too seriously! We knew we could weather out the storm and we ultimately utilized each set back as an opportunity to learn more!

Please Please Please start early on this project! If you go slow in the first weeks, the last weeks are going to be miserable.

Sometimes it’s worth it to get some sleep

Be ready to commit half of the project timeline to debugging

Meet The Team

Hannah

Ethan

Brenden

Nolan