This is a modification of a lab from
Rowan University. In this lab your robot will measure a cardboard box.
You will use a handyboard microcontroller and a lego body to do the
lab. Your robot will have to sense the box and measure how far is has
travelled when it believes that it has gone beyond the end of the box.
Materials:
Each group has a robot kit in the lab. Your group has its bin in the
same drawer as before in the cabinet at the back of the
room. In your assigned half of a drawer you will find your group's bin.
The bin contains
- A handyboard
- handboard charger
- interface board
- Handyboard sensors
- 3 light sensors
- 2 ET style IR sensors
- 2 top hat style IR sensors
- two IR breakbeam encoders
- 6 touch sensors.
- Two lego motors
- two lego motor to handboard connectors.
- a 'bunch' of Legos. (you have a bout 300 lego pieces to build
your robot with. includeing bricks, beams, gears wheels and axles)
Two cardboard boxes are also at the back of the lab for you to practice
on. A new box will be used for demonstrations at the when the lab is
due.
Lab Availability:
As previously mentioned, the lab is available anytime that the Moakley
open access lab is open except for Tuesday and Thursday evenings. The
other class finishes on Thursday April 7th so after that you may work
on those evenings as well.
Your Task:
Your task is to build and program a robot that can do one or both of
the following tasks. Note that the first task can give you a maximum
grade of 79 (C+) if done perfectly, while the second , harder task
can get you a maximum grade of 89 (B+) if done perfectly. The
third task will get your a full 100% if done perfectly. However if not
done
well, both projects can earn you much lower grades. It is better to get
the first task working well and then start working on the second task
and get it well done before starting on the third
rather than just starting on the second or third task and not getting
it working
very well.
- Task 1 You must measure the side of a box and display that
measurement in centimeters on the lcd panel.
- Task 2: Your robot must calculate the volume of the box,
having been given the depth and the height of the box by the
instructor, with your robot measuring the width of the box. You must
have a way of entering the depth and height information into the robot.
You can assume that the depth and height that you will be given at
integers, however you should make no such assumptions for the width
that the robot measures. (it should be a floating point value) All
measurements will be in centimeters. When your robot has traversed and
measured the width of the box, it should display the volume of the box
on its display.
- Task2: Your robot must calculate the volume of the box, having
been given the height of the box by the instructor, with your robot
measuring the width and depth of the box. As above, you need a way of
entering the integer height of the box into the robot. Your robots
measurements of the widgth and depth are to be done as floating point
values though. Again measurment will be in centimeters. When your robot
is done measuring , it needs to print out the volume of the box that is
has calculated.
Considerations:
- Sensor calibrations: the color of the box is not guaranteed. You
will be given a couple of minutes to calibrate your sensors in place to
handle the box color and the lighting differences in the room.
- Don't move the box. The box will be light and might move if your
robot runs into it - this will give you incorrect readings for sure.
Have fun:
We will go over a few of the details of working with the handyboards in
class. Have fun working on this project and I look forward to seeing
what you can do with it.