Arena Difficulties and Sensors

The past week has consisted of completing the design of the robot by adding both the second ultrasonic and light sensor as well as trying to improve the both the mechanical design and the algorithm. When the light sensors were added, the updated code was tested to make sure that the both the light sensors cause the robot to move away from the line when they are triggered, the front ultrasonic tracks the other robot when it is triggered and the back ultrasonic causes the robot to run away when it is triggered. Overall the code was a little clunky, but it worked. A major issue occurred, though, when the final arena was cut out from the board. Both the front and back light sensors were even with the wheels so the wheels would fall off before the sensor triggered due to the circular shape of the arena. To fix this problem, a quick solution consisting of moving the motorized wheels towards the front and angling the front light sensor parallel to the slanted front end has been implemented as shown in Figures 9-11. 

Figure 9. Front of the modified design

Figure 10. Back of the modified design

Figure 11. Bottom of the modified design

This current design has many trade-offs, such as the back being much more vulnerable if it is hit, but the addition of the ultrasonic sensor watching the back should prevent many attacks from happening. With only one week left until the competition, there is not much time to make major changes so in the next week the plan is to work out the major kinks in the algorithm and mechanical design in order to be competition ready.

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