Groot
To develop students’ competence and self-confidence as design engineers. It emphasizes the creative design process and the application of physical laws. The class ends in a final robot competition, in which students compete against each other to see whose robot can win the most total points.
Objective
A button pushing robot that could autonomously navigate the gameboard. The robot’s main objective was to push buttons in a given order to earn as many points as possible.
Outcome
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Mechanical Design
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Materials Selection
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Control Systems
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Manufacturing Processes
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Prototyping
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CAD (Computer-Aided Design)
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Machine Shop Skills
Hard Skills
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Adaptability
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Creative Thinking
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Presentation Skills
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Critical Thinking
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Time Management
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Problem-Solving
Soft Skills
The Process
MIT 2.007: Design and Manufacturing I
Spring 2020
In Design and Manufacturing I, the students are tasked with creating an autonomous robot which can compete on a game board against other robots. Unfortunately due to Covid, I was unable to manufacture the robot, however I was able to create a full CAD model and write some preliminary code using a prototype robot.
Fun Fact: My robot's name is Groot because the game board was themed Avengers: Age of Ultron and its sole purpose was to push buttons.
The Design
The main challenege my robot was trying to overcome was following a path up the ramp of our game board and pushing buttons in a given sequence. All of these tasks needed to be autonomous. To accomplish this my plan was to use a rack and pinion system where the rack would act as the button pusher. The robot would have been equiped with line sensor and ultrasonic sensors mounted in the front and back of the chassis for navigation. There would also be a color sensor on the bottom in the center of the chassis to detemine which color button the robot was in front of. Some preliminary testing was done but the robot was never completed.
