Green Machine Reloaded

Trinity is just 6 days away. GMR is looking pretty good right now. Most of his code is completed, he is completing 90% of his runs, with an average time of about 15-20s after bonuses and the room factor.

Overall, I only hit about half of my goals with this robot. The overall speed is only about half as fast as I had originally wanted, but is still about 30% faster than LGM3 was at the Canadian National Robot Games. The room search is much faster and more reliable than LGM3 was, but I really hope to still improve some other points.

-Fergs

Green Machine Reloaded, Part 2B

There's always gonna be some setbacks... such as the robot falls over when it comes to a stop. Or that you mounted the IR sensors at a 45 degree angle rather than 60 degrees. And occasionally, you find out your bot likes to climb the wall.. I really wish a video camera was running right then.

Anyways, I'm quickly changing the lower frame to move the battery backwards 1/2", move the motors up about 1", and put smaller wheels on. I'm also not entirely sold on this TPA-81 thermopile nonsense... its really kinda slow compared to some good old IR photodiodes... or a pyroelectric.

GMR Part Duex

I've nearly finished the mechanical & electrical assembly of GMR. I have to redo the front plate of the head as the mounting holes aren't quite correct for the TPA-81. I also have to rig up the UVTron in the back.

So far the navigation software is pretty solid, since its a small revision of the code that won the CNRG in the fall. The room entry code needs some work, as well as the fire fighting itself -- mainly to address the move from a pyroelectric to a TPA-81. I also plan to rework the cornering code, so that the robot makes a smooth turn through the corners, rather than stopping and turning 90 degrees. This was where LGM lost the most time, his run at CNRG would have been good for about a 64 second final score at Trinity. That time would have beat the 2009 senior division winner, but would have been about 3x slower than the winner of the HS division. I'm hoping that with these improvements I can cut the final score to about 20 seconds...

Building GMR

I've made quite a bit of progress on GMR. The motor mount plate is finished, the head is shaping up, the controller board is finished. I've written all of the drivers for the new I2C devices, and I am working on building the head board. I've still got to mount the caster, make the upper deck out of EPVC, and mount all the sensors in their final positions.

Green Machine Reloaded

After the Little Green Machine won the Canadian National Robot Games last month, I have turned my attention to the 2009 Trinity Fire Fighting Robot Contest. While LGM could probably just be rolled back out and run, I'm instead rebuilding a new robot from the ground up - the Green Machine Reloaded (GMR).

GMR will use the same motors, encoders, and power system that LGM used. The 4 IR rangers are also in a similar configuration. The improvements for this version are numerous: GMR is 45% smaller, has a panning heading with 300 degrees of movement, 3-7/8" Banebots wheels, and replaces the old Eltec pyroelectric sensor with a TPA81 thermopile. The brain has been upgraded from a Barello ARC board with an ATMEGA16 to my new AVRRA Lite board, sporting an ATMEGA324, XBEE wireless, and onboard connectors for the AX-12 servo.

The controller PCB is currently being manufactured. I've completed the lower frame components, and am currently working on assembly of the base of the robot. I hope to have a fully functional bot by the end of January.

-Fergs