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Current Events
RoboCup International Open 2007
| The RoboCup International Open in Atlanta, Georgia has completed as well as our run at the
rescue robot challenge for the year. "Fatal Error", our second prototype and contest entrant, encountered
a drivetrain malfunction due to failure of the set screws on the drive shaft. The robot was able to maneuver
for a few minutes and relay video data back to the operator before the motors disconnected from the treads.
Compounding the mechanical problems, some of the embedded hardware did not function to allow the multiple outputs
controlling the servos for the movable boom. |
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This eliminated degrees of freedom, but still let the operator rotate
the camera in a near 360 field of view. Problems other robots encountered in the arena included: poor operator
interfaces, large and cumbersome robots, and high centering on the step fields. We believe that had our robot
survived for longer in the arena it would have performed well given that it was one of the lightest designs in the
field and the large tread covered area would have prevented becoming stuck on any vertical obstacles.
| Fortunately, Dave was able to finish most of the mapping software and we gleaned a great deal of
knowledge from the competition and the symposium that occured afterward. Here's hoping future generations
of Techers carry on the torch of RoboRescue!. |
Previous Work - The Tank's first steps
Summer Time 06
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It's summer! Our project manager, Rocky, is in Germany and recently attended the International
RoboCup open. All of the team leads are back from a short vacation and ready to resume work
on our first prototype. Weekly design meetings are the norm and we have the good fortune of getting all the team
leads in the same room at the beginning of the design process. This ensures that the mechanical design team
won't overlook a critical need for either Mapping or Victim ID |
What's done so far?
| We had completed the metal chassis for our first robot as of the end of this academic year.
The drivetrain is in the process of being integrated with the chassis. With the completion of
this robot, we will have our first working model on which to begin both mobility performance
tests as well as the first set of sensor suite tests. |
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