Mechatronics Robodeo!

For the first event of the Robodeo challenge, we needed to build a robot to track a randomly wandering robot "steer" and capture it.  Our robot was equipped with short range sonar sensors and long range IR sensors.  Our strategy was to chase the steer using these sensors and enclose it with our jagged arms while simultaneously lifting the steer with our front "forklift".

 

For the second event of the Robodeo challenge, we needed to race around barrels with embedded IR LEDs in them.  We used an array of IR transistors for our only sensors, and coded a state machine to drive around the barrels in a particular order and orientation.  The wheels were molded from Smooth-On Oomoo 25 silicon rubber using a 3D printed mold I designed.  The batman design on the wheels was made by my teammate, Michael Hurst.