docking for tennis ball collector robot

Projects General Guidance
1

Hi, I'm trying to make my robot to unload the tennis balls from the robot storage to a specific location/home base. Any ideas for me to perform such task? Maybe a docking system or some sort of things. Thx

2

Please ask more specific questions.

3

How much do you propose to pay?

4

Your robot needs to know when it needs to go potty unload itelf.

  • It could have some kind of 'fullness sensor' (pressure, optical, ...),
  • It could have a timeout,
  • It could receive a signal from an operator (you),

Your robot needs to know how to get to the toilet base.

  • The base could have a beacon (infrared?) that the robot can see and home in on,
  • The robot could follow a predetermined sequence that will eventually always get to the base,

Have you looked into how lawn mowers and roombas find their charging stations?

5

I suggest a wheeled robot with a roller system made out of long tank treads. You could extend the roller almost all the way to the ground and it will be able to pick up balls. You just need to make sure that the treads have enough traction and also make sure that you are not storing too many balls in the roller.

6

Jobi-Wan:
Your robot needs to know when it needs to go potty unload itelf.

  • It could have some kind of 'fullness sensor' (pressure, optical, ...),
  • It could have a timeout,
  • It could receive a signal from an operator (you),

Your robot needs to know how to get to the toilet base.

  • The base could have a beacon (infrared?) that the robot can see and home in on,
  • The robot could follow a predetermined sequence that will eventually always get to the base,

Have you looked into how lawn mowers and roombas find their charging stations?

I do looked into roombas. But I'm not really understand how the beacons thing works.

7

DrDiettrich:
Please ask more specific questions.

What I want is to make my robot back to its home base. Is it specific enough?

Paul__B:
How much do you propose to pay?

As low as possible. Limited budget xD

goodinventor:
I suggest a wheeled robot with a roller system made out of long tank treads. You could extend the roller almost all the way to the ground and it will be able to pick up balls. You just need to make sure that the treads have enough traction and also make sure that you are not storing too many balls in the roller.

Thanks

8

If you want to make your robot back to its home base, make it find the home base, then make it move there. Is that helpful enough?

9

You could make your home base easy to find and save money by having a light there. The robot could use a photo resistor to sense where the light is most intense (the base) and follow it. At the same time the robot can count off a fixed distance which it has traveled back. Once that distance is counted it stops and unloads its balls. Of course you probably don't want to rely on a fixed distance, so you might want a different setup for knowing (very generally) where you are.

10

goodinventor:
You could make your home base easy to find and save money by having a light there. The robot could use a photo resistor to sense where the light is most intense (the base) and follow it. At the same time the robot can count off a fixed distance which it has traveled back. Once that distance is counted it stops and unloads its balls. Of course you probably don't want to rely on a fixed distance, so you might want a different setup for knowing (very generally) where you are.

Yup, no fixed distance. The distance is random. Btw, thanks alot =)

11

You could also use an RFID tag to indicate the home base. The robot would have an RFID reader mounted and would search in an organized manner for the tag. When it finds it it would release the balls.

12

Put an IR receiver on the robot (e.g. TSSP4038) and an infrared LED, blinking at 38KHz, on the base station. Assuming you shield the IR receiver from light on the back and sides it will know it's facing the base station if it receives a signal.

This would be immune to ambient light conditions and cost about a dollar. Range would be identical to your TV remote.

13

And I imagine that is what Roomba uses.

RFID pretty useless.

14

Chagrin:
Put an IR receiver on the robot (e.g. TSSP4038) and an infrared LED, blinking at 38KHz, on the base station. Assuming you shield the IR receiver from light on the back and sides it will know it's facing the base station if it receives a signal.

This would be immune to ambient light conditions and cost about a dollar. Range would be identical to your TV remote.

I do think about this but the range is quite short. My area is outdoor, so might need a longer range for the IR. And it is costly for a long range IR. xD

15

flaredro:
I do think about this but the range is quite short. My area is outdoor, so might need a longer range for the IR. And it is costly for a long range IR. xD

Sounds like you need GPS then.