The objective of this group project was to design an autonomous robot with the ability to read and record a sequence of coloured pucks and then stack them in the correct order. The robot achieved this by first reading the sequence using coloured LEDs and a photodiode, and then navigating its way to the puck area with randomly distributed coloured pucks. The robot had to avoid obstacles (such as walls and a black obstacle) during navigation, pick up the correct colour puck and then stack it in the designated area.
The robot’s design featured a PSoC 5LP microcontroller which acted as the control system to process sensor inputs and actuate the mechanical components. The robot’s navigation, positioning and obstacle avoidance were enabled with the use of ultrasonic sensors and shaft encoders, along with DC motors for the wheels. LEDs and photodiodes were used for colour sensing. The two key mechanical components of the robot were the gripper and lifting mechanism. One servo was required for the gripper while a stepper motor and lead screw were used for the lifting mechanism. The gripper was placed parallel with the ground and the lifting mechanism allowed for one degree of motion for simple and efficient grabbing/stacking of pucks.