Robo-Roaches

Students in Mobile Robot Design (Es451) had to build small mobile robots, that behave like roaches, using their Lego Mindstorm Kits. The robots were supposed to wander around the room randomly looking for "food" (Small Plastic Ball with Infrared LEDs inside). If the find food they should stop and "eat". Just like real roaches they should run away if a bright light shines on them.







Finally, they need to be able to avoid obstacles. That can be pretty tricky when the room is filled with people, chairs, and other robots. Remember, the robots can't "see" and they don't have map of the room. They can only sense obstacles a few inches in front of them. One good way to do that is to use a bump sensor. Building a nice bump sensor can be quite a mechanical design challenge. The robots are programmed in C using something called a behavior based architecture -- the same framework used in the Roomba vacum cleaner.


I leave you with a video taken by a camera strapped to the top of one of the robots. From the robot's prespective turns out the world is an ugly place filled with black shoes, tan uniformed legs and rolling chairs.

(After about 1 minute in there is some cool picture in picture editing thanks to Midn Ihlan!)

Kinetic Display?

The challenge was simple, students in Es201, a new first course in systems engineering, were given a bag of motors, micro controllers, and small plastic toys and told to do something "interesting and aesthetically pleasing".

During the semester, students with no prior programming or electronics experience learned how to program micro computers to move a motor, light an LED, read a sensor, etc. It was amazing to see the things they came up with.

You just never know what you will get. Here is "Flame Bot" which uses a small torch to melt little plastic army guys (?)

The all time crowd pleaser? A tribute to the King of Pop.

Terrain Challenge

A rite of passage in Es451 Mobile robot design is the terrain challenge.

The difficulty of designing vehicles to drive over unforgiving terrain is that there are many types of terrain to consider: steep slopes, bumpy roads, gaps or chasms, sticky surfaces, etc

Worse yet, improving a vehicle's performance in one area, can often hurt is performance in another. For example, shifting the center of gravity forward can help you on the uphill but hurt your chances of making it back down unscathed.

Students in ES451 Mobile Robot Design, as given a Lego Mindstorms kit and asked to build vehicle that can traverse the entire course: (1) a 90 degree turn on super sticky mouse pads; (2) up the bolt studded hill; (3) across the 4" chasm; (5) down the Nastiest Descent You Have Ever Seen; (6) and out the legume pit. On average only 3 of 10 teams can complete the entire challenge.

Here is one of the year's teams. They used a total of 12 wheels (and treads) to make an "active undercarriage" that prevents the vehicle from getting high centered on obstacles, a extra long body to cross the chasm and outriggers to improve stability on the downhill. (It still needs some help on the down hill! )