TCR 2009 Version 1.0 (Test)

TCR2009

TCR2009 2

Project Concept: Cleaning and Collecting

Project Name: Trash Collector Robot (TCR-2009)

Project Version: Test 1.0

Manufacture Date: 4 March 2009

Objectives:

  1. Collecting trash on floor.
  2. Keep the trash without falling back to floor

Project Overview
This is the second idea for our robot project after plenty of weeks our group making the brainstorming and analyzing the previous ideas. The theme of TRASH COLLECTOR is same with our previous robot idea, the DESK CLEANER, which is to clean the environment. The robot have use three sensors, which are ultrasonic, light and sound sensors. The purpose of use these sensors is being describe on the points below.

  1. Ultrasonic: To detect the nearest object on the floor, in order to make the robot move towards the object.
  2. Light: To determine the colour of object.
  3. Sound: To give the command to the conveyor belt to stop.

The robot firstly will make a full 360 degrees of rotation, to allow the ultrasonic sensor to scan the nearest object. Then, the robot will move to the object that had been put randomly on floor. The light sensor will scan the colour of the object, and if the colour of object is red, the conveyor will be rotating to move the ball up. Meanwhile, if the colour of the object is blue, the robot will make a reverse. For the red ball, the ball will be move along the conveyor until the ball drop to the box at the back of the robot. Then, the robot will wait until it hear any sound before stop the conveyor motor. The robot will then scan back to detect any other nearest object on the floor.

Problem and Solution
For the robot building design, there are many problems that we face.

  1. Conveyor Arrangement: Firstly, we wanted to use only two conveyor belt. However, the belt seems not long enough to grab the ball on the floor. Therefore, we need to add extra two conveyor. However, the arrangement of conveyor seem to give us a lot of problems. The front and back conveyors must be rotating on the same direction. Thus, we had try to adapt on many gears to find this solution. But, at the end, some of our peers had come with the brilliant ideas, which is to arrange the front conveyor on the above of the back conveyor. So, the servo motor will rotate the both conveyor at the same time and without using any complicated gears.
  2. Conveyor Functions: The front conveyor seem effective, but the back conveyor did not able to push the ball to the back. The ball will be stuck at the middle of the conveyor. At the end, we had try to put some attachment, that will push the ball to down in order to make the ball effectively grabbed by the back conveyor.
  3. Wheel body: The wheel body is situated at the below of the robot. The main problem is the front body is too heavy, thus it will make the robot unstable. This will effecting the robot movement. As the solution, we had try to make a bigger box for the object container at the back of the robot. This will make the weight of front and back body more equal and stable.

The program of the robot still do not working. The robot can detect the nearest object, however it did not manage to accurately move to that object. Thus, the conveyor motor will not be function if the robot do not detect the object. We will try to enhance our programming by time to time.

Later Improvement
In next class, we will try to modified the robot on its design and program. We will try to change the arrangement of conveyor. The front conveyor will be put at the below of back conveyor.We will discuss on it effectiveness on the next post. For the program, after several problems on the previous project, we had try to change on how the robot will function. Next time, the robot will use also the three sensors, but with different purpose. The light sensor: will detect the route, the ultrasonic :will detect the object, and the sound sensor still be use for the same function as above.

That all for today, till the next time, Bye..

::::Pictures: Credited to Azri Razak ::::