Team 4 Shane Sunada – Project Leader Malcolm Menor – Project Manager Nathan Umeda – Technical Supervisor Joseph Longhi – Documentation Final Presentation May 9, 2008

To design and construct a robotic “mouse” that can successfully navigate to a central point of a randomized maze and return to the starting point with minimal collisions. Overview

Hardware

Initial Goals - Robot base must be able to rotate 180 degrees in a 16cm x 16cm square - Robot base should be robust - Robot base should be light (no excessive material) - Robot should be easily disassembled - Robot should LOOK GOOD!

Alteration -Chassis and Sensor Layout -Rear Sensors -Tire size - Chassis lightening - Circuit element decisions

Problems -Thought our motors were bad when circuit was on Breadboard -Shorted RCM2000 -Batteries/Power Drain -PCB -Heat Generated -Finding Right Value of Resistors for Sensors

Software

Initial Goals -Get it moving Straight -Tracking -Get it to turn Wall Hugger -Right -Left -Switching -Random -Flood Fill -Track (x,y) position in maze -Flood Filling Functions

Straight/Tracking -Stop one wheel -Deciding which sensors to use -Use Costates -Reverse Code -Acceleration

Turning -Move both wheels in opposite directions so turn in place -UTurn is just 2 turns

Wall Hugger -Slow down when no wall -Turn after no wall then wall -Started with just right wall hugging -Mod to left wall -Switching -Random Pulses

Flood Fill -Tried position with step count -Wrote other functions -Not able to get all function to sync

Problems

Straight/Tracking -If tried a smooth correction it didn’t correct fast enough -Sensors to far apart -Trying to Find the Right speed to move the mouse -Sometimes tracked when we didn’t want to -(Tracked into Wall) -Changed Sensors Used

Turning -Getting the values for turning -Sometimes one wheels locked

Wall Hugging -Getting Code to compile -Deciding When the mouse should turn -Instead of using step counts sense when wall disappears and then reappears -Turned when it shouldn’t or the wrong directions -Change what sensors were used to detect turn

Continued Switching/Random How to make it switch Implementing a Random Function Added LED Crashed into wall Reset Feature

Flood Fill -How to write a flood fill code and what it is -How to avoid flood overflow -Just don’t check outer walls -Keeping track of position in the maze

Recap Final Standing -Have Chassis using Stepper Motors and a PCB Motorboard -8 Sensors and 2 LED on a Adjustable Sensor Board V Rechargeable Batteries -Left, Right, Switching, Random Wall Hugger, Drag Race switchable with 8 Dip Switches

Outstanding Problems What we would change

Power Drain/ Heat -More Voltage Regulators -Stepper Motors gave problems -Rechargeable Batteries -Add one more Switch

-Sensor Layout -Closer Sensors -More Sensors -PCB Sensor Boards -Weight Reduction -Position -Trying to keep track of position in maze

-Moving -S-Turns -Better Tracking -Solving Algorithms -Getting Flood Fill to work -Find a better algorithm