Hey everyone,
I have a school project where effectively we have to make an autonomous robot that can search a 8' by 8' square piece of plywood to find large ball bearings and pick them up and deposit them in bins. I'm trying to think through the possibilities of how to accomplish this. The 8' by 8' board it runs on has electrical tape running along the perimeter (set in by 6") and a big electrical tape circle in the middle. A picture of the playing field is attached. The robot will start in the 1.5' square in the corner.The ball bearings will be within the green square. My first question is what would be the best way to scan the whole playing field for ball bearings? It can't follow a line the whole way because the lines do not cover the entire playing field. Also, I assumed I would use IR distance sensors to detect anomalies which would have to be the ball bearings, but is there a better way to detect them? They will be 1/2" to 2" diameter. My last question is what mechanisms would you recommend to use to pick up and hold the ball bearings? It has to hold up to 5 ball bearings of different size and drop them in their respective bins. I was thinking an electromagnet and 5 individual storage bins, but there is probably a better way to do that, since a large steel ball bearing would be pretty heavy to pick up with an electromagnet. Any advice would be appreciated, as I am new to Arduino.
I have a school project where effectively we have to make an autonomous robot that can search a 8' by 8' square piece of plywood to find large ball bearings and pick them up and deposit them in bins.
I'm trying to think through the possibilities of how to accomplish this.
The 8' by 8' board it runs on has electrical tape running along the perimeter (set in by 6") and a big electrical tape circle in the middle.
A picture of the playing field is attached.
The robot will start in the 1.5' square in the corner.
The ball bearings will be within the green square.
My first question is what would be the best way to scan the whole playing field for ball bearings?
It can't follow a line the whole way because the lines do not cover the entire playing field.
Also, I assumed I would use IR distance sensors to detect anomalies which would have to be the ball bearings, but is there a better way to detect them?
They will be 1/2" to 2" diameter.
My last question is what mechanisms would you recommend to use to pick up and hold the ball bearings?
It has to hold up to 5 ball bearings of different size and drop them in their respective bins.
I was thinking an electromagnet and 5 individual storage bins, but there is probably a better way to do that, since a large steel ball bearing would be pretty heavy to pick up with an electromagnet.
Any advice would be appreciated, as I am new to Arduino.
Sorry, had to put your request in point form, otherwise I'd say half the members reading it would not bother to reply.
Can you please tell us your electronics, programming, Arduino, hardware experience?
I wonder could they be detected by an ultrasonic detector? If so I wonder if mounting the detector on a servo so it could scan the whole area from any one point and then cause the robot to move in the direction of the nearest object?
I don't know whether an ultrasonic detector could detect something small 8 feet away so maybe there needs to be some process to move the robot if nothing is detected, and then try again.
Sorting into bins: Maybe use 2 non-parallel rails. Drop all ball bearings in the same spot and have them roll down the rails. As rails get wider apart, bb will sooner or later drop, small bbs sooner, large later.
Aggertroll:
Sorting into bins: Maybe use 2 non-parallel rails. Drop all ball bearings in the same spot and have them roll down the rails. As rails get wider apart, bb will sooner or later drop, small bbs sooner, large later.
Ohh.. Dr Edward De Bono would be happy to hear that train of thought, I like it.
Tom...
Thanks everyone. As far as my experience goes it is fairly minimal. I'm 7 weeks into a class that uses Arduino and that is about all of the experience I have. The ball bearings range from 1/2" to 2" diameter. I will have to explore whether or not an ultrasonic sensor can pick up the bearings. As far as using the rail idea, the bins are provided by the instructor and we cannot modify them. Basically it is supposed to pick up the bearing, identify it as one of three sizes, then drop it into the corresponding bin. Thanks!
You mention 3 sizes. Are these sizes specified? That might help with the suggestions we give.
2" sphere? That is over a pound or half kilo.
How high is the bin this needs put in?
So there are 3 sizes, one will be between 1/2" and 1", the next is between 1" and 1.5", and the last will be between 1.5" and 2". The bin will be 6-9" off the ground and the robot can be no taller than 12". Thanks!
