Laser Battle Bots

     This week we worked a lot on getting the RF packet sent from the controller to be received correctly by the robot. We attempted to minimize packet size using the Arduino bitWrite and bitRead functions. We also worked a lot with the algorithm to allow for natural control with the joystick, since at first the directionality inverted when we drove backwards. In getting the motors to run how we wanted them, we also ran into some issues with battery power. We started using a 9V battery for prototyping purposes, but we didn’t want to use that as a final fix due to the cost of 9V batteries. We purchased a multi-pack of 3.7V batteries than we plan to use in series to access nearly the full potential of our 12V motors. Our robot being controlled by Landon. You can see that we can drive, turn the servo, and blink an LED.      With most of the base hardware assembled, we were able to fully implement our RC communication. The two websites that were most h...

This week we made significant progress on the mobile base for the robot. We 3D printed the CAD model we created last week, then attached the motors and tested functionality. Our prototype base. We made a simple program to control our H-bridge and drive the wheels. It's hard to see them turn, but they do! When we ran the prototype on the ground, we realized that we needed significantly more traction than what we had in order for the robot to drive properly. We attempted to use rubber bands, but the shape of the wheels made them impractical. You can see that our robot wanders a bit in this test. We think that's due to friction differences between the wheels. When the rubber bands we put on for traction fell off, things got a little...janky. As a consequence, we decided to redesign the wheels of the robot. We purchased silicone O-rings to provide additional traction. The two O-rings seat on the wheel, and the wheel press-fits on the shaft...