ANTONIO
MOOCA
LINE FOLLOWER
Line Follower Category is a common competition in robotics tournaments, where a robot must follow a track marked by a black or white line in the shortest possible time.
This robot uses its own PCB as chassis, as a base for all the components, such as motors, sensors and battery.
The two-layer PCB was designed to implement:
- 16 analog sensor signals as inputs.
- Controlling two high-speed motors by PWM as outputs.
This circuit used an ESP32 as a microcontroller, which does not have 16 available ADC (Analog-to-Digital Converters) ports. To solve this a multiplexer was added to the design. Through this challenge I learned how to solder SMT components using a hot air station.
To improve accuracy, a Pololu module was implemented. The 16 analog sensor outputs where mathematically processed to determine the position of the line, and a variable reference was implemented.
The robot's movement is regulated by a PID controller programmed on Arduino IDE (C++), allowing it to handle both sharp turns and straight lines. This configuration made the robot the fastest and most reliable in the competition.
Achievements:
- PID Controller implementation and tuning in C++.
- PWM frequency tuning for better performance.
- 3D-printed parts implemented.
- Learned SMT Soldering.
- Modular PCB design for reuse components in other projects.
- Tested and fine-tuned under different scenarios.
1st PLACE
SUMO-BOT
The Sumo-bot category is a competition that is always present in any tournament you attend. The challenge is to push the opponent's robot out of the ring, just like in the Japanese sport of Sumo.
The solutions my team and I developed for these challenges manly focused on the mechanical aspect of the robots, always aiming to combine different manufacturing techniques and materials.
The robot shown above has a CNC-machined chassis combined with a 3D-printed ramp for enclosing sensors and electronics, ensuring the correct sensor tilt and eliminating blind spots.
The robot shown below also has a CNC-machined aluminum chassis combined with a wire-cut metal sheet bent into a ramp for enclosing sensors and electronics.
All these parts were designed on SolidWorks with different operations helping develop an advanced 3D space awareness and a critical thinking for creating editale complex models. These models were manufactured via SolidWorks CAM and Prusa Slicer, developing the necessary skills for building, maintaining and using 3D printers.
HIGHLIGHTS
Our robot jumped using the
enemy as a ramp.
Very fast competition were a match is defined in just seconds
It is key having the right strategy against the right opponent .
VISION SYSTEMS
The Vision Centric Challenge is a competition focused on Computer Vision solutions. The purpose is to overcome the challenge with a mobile robot, which only has one sensor: a camera.
This robot was made using parts from a TETRIX Pitsco kit. The motor control was made via an NXT connected to motor drivers and on-board laptop which is also used to process the image.
The images obtained by the camera were processed by NI Vision software, were morphology operations and filters were applied, also shape detection in other to evaluate the position of the cones.
This information was transferred to a LabView program were the route planning took place, finding the best route whit out colliding with other signals.
