Download - Colorado Robot Challenge Year 4
Colorado Robot ChallengeYear 4
SaturdayApril 10th,
2010
Location: Great Sand Dunes National Park
Permit “willing”, we will be at
the usual location on Saturday morning.
Goals
We are: • attempting to develop small autonomous
robots capable of traversing harsh terrain as they move towards a central beacon.
• providing students with exceptional training in a growing technological discipline.
Let’s Look at the Basic Rules
Don’t scheme ways of defeating the
competition. We are all working
together to solve the problem!
No winners, no losers. Just learners.
Basic Rules
Maximum Mass: 1.5 kg
This is the mass of a small cat.
Please don’t add electronics tocats and enter them.
Keep them small!
Basic Rules
A beaconing system will provide location information to the robots.
This signal will be used for tracking and sending information to the robot. Details will be discussed later in the presentation.
Basic Rules
No materials which could potentially harm the environment!
We want good publicity, not bad publicity. After the event, we will also clean the activity area.
Basic Rules
The robot must remain in contact with the ground!
The goal is to navigate theterrain, not avoid it. Flyingrobots will not be allowed.
Overview of the Event
We will have four courses.
Overview of the Event
Course 1 will be fairly smooth and lacking major obstacles. The purpose of this
course is to illustrate the robot’s ability to find the homing beacon.
Overview of the Event
Course 2 will be essentially level, but will contain obstacles, natural or artificial. On this course, the robot will demonstrate its ability to detect and avoid obstacles while still homing to the beacon.
The obstacles will be sizable.
Overview of the Event
Course 3 will involve uneven terrain. This course will demonstrate the robot’s ability to make decisions regarding a safe route.
Obstacles may be present
Overview of the Event
Course 4 will be a nightmare, combination of all the course only at a harder level.
Overview of the Event
Expect any and all weather conditions
Basic Systems
Your robot will have at least these basic systems:
1) Motion2) Sensory3) Direction Determination
The Where am I Question!
We will provide a base station beacon, details on the website. It will be capable of tracking your robot IF your robot requests to know where it is. It will sent back to your robot the angle between north and your robot. It should have an accuracy of about 5 degrees, more than adequate for our event.
Off the Shelf Sensors
Parallax also sells pre-assembled IR sensors, ultrasonic sensors, tilt/acceleration sensors, etc. They are not unique in their offerings.
DANGER! DANGER!The fine sand at the Sand Dunes can find
its way into your robot, causing it to stop
working! Two years ago sand stopped the
motors on a robot. Last year it stopped
the ultrasonic sensors on a robot, leaving it
“blind”.
Support
If we are not alone, then you are not alone!
Traveling Workshops
Randy Emmons will provide FREE beginning robotics workshops (Basic Stamp based) at your institution beginning in October.
He will also continue to interact, at their request, with your students through the development phase. This interaction can include expansion to the PIC microcontroller.
Questions Answered
Brian Sanders at CU was “encouraged” to provide assistance with groups who chose to use the Atmel microcontrollers.
Both Brian and Randy can address questions on basic logic.
Web Support
Brian will be expanding the Colorado Robot Challenge on the CSGC website. This site will include answers to questions that various groups encounter.
Money!
CSGC has provided $2500 to be used as equipment money for this event. This is enough to buy a microcontroller and some basic sensors for 5 teams. Contact Randy Emmons ([email protected]) for more information.
Colorado Robot Challenge Philosophy
We are working together on this project. It is not a contest. By working in teams, we increase the number of students exposed to this important technology. Different teams will take different approaches, allowing us to learn for each other. Share ideas! We, as a group, want to develop the best possible small, autonomous robots.
Many Omitted Details
While many details have been omitted, there is enough information for you to form teams (can be more than one team) at your institution. The students will need some time to brain storm robot designs. Their lack of technological knowledge is not a handicap; we are all involve with this project to learn.
Where Should Your Students Start?
They should design a platform – the unit
responsible for movement
While Designing the Platform …
Make arrangements for a workshop at [email protected] – he won’t respond until after October 5th.
Look at different sensor options.
Allow the students to be creative and ….
Think Outside the Box
Many designs are possible
If You Must Stay with Wheels
There is still a lot of room for creativity.
But Do Consider “Legged” Robots
Thank You