RoboRats
Undergraduate Robot Competition
This project was a competition where teams of two had to build and program an autonomous Lego robot to collect foam cubes (cheese). The cubes had different values for different locations and the field had black lines, raised steps, a ramp, and the other team’s robot would be collecting cubes at the same time.
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Our collection method involved a forked bulldozer arm in front and a collection basket as the body of the robot. Another feature we added was a retracted arm that deployed after the start button was pressed. This arm was designed to knock down a cube that was suspended above the field and was worth a lot of points. Later in the build, we asked if part of our robot could be left on the field, like a booby-trap. The trap was allowed so I designed a tangle of sticks, gears, and rubber bands strung together with yarn to stop the other robot’s wheels or cube collecting mechanisms. Infrared sensors were utilized to follow the black lines and to turn away from walls in front of and along the side of the robot. I was responsible for the design and fabrication of the robot while my partner programmed the commands. We collaborated on the design and code to ensure the robot could fulfill the objective.
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At the end of the competition, we won second place. The main lesson I took from this design competition was that the robot would be useless if it was not reliable. We designed, coded, and built our robot early to be able to test and retest several times on the competition field. Through this process, design iterations were made to fix errors and make the robot more reliable. Our robot could consistently make the first turn out of the starting side while about half the other robots were not able to because their lack of field testing. I learned to test and fail early so the issues can be fixed before the deadline.