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Chris Brown, Joel Idicula, John Neel, Andre Washington, Dr. Asad Azemi (Faculty Advisor) Penn State Brandywine
Abstract
Our team, consisting of four engineering students from Penn State Brandywine, has used the Lego NXT MindStorms kit to build and program a robot that can successfully navigate a given maze, find a candle and extinguish it. The entire structure of the maze is known but the location of the candle within the maze is not known. To navigate the structure we used a C based programming language called RobotC. This project allowed our team to gain a greater understanding of robotics and how to apply relatively cheap electronic components to solve a complex problem. In order to complete this project, our team designed the robot keeping in mind originality and functionality as its two most important attributes. Next, we developed the navigational logic the robot was required to follow in order to complete its goal. After that, we programmed a computer simulation of the robot and its interaction with a simulated maze environment. Utilizing the information gained from the simulation our team has begun the final programming for this robot. After this, our team began extensive trial and error runs. Finally, our team tested the robot to ensure that it successfully completed the maze. From this project, our team has taken away the importance of programming in robotics. It is the single most important aspect of the robot because the success of all of the sensors and other equipment relies on the programming.
Our Robot
-Lego MindStorms NXT Robot -Our robot used a total of three motors two that were used for movement and one for head rotation -The motor mounted on the top of the robot was used so that we could scan the room without moving the body of the robot -An ultrasonic sensor was used to navigate through the walls of the maze by measuring the distance between itself and the walls, or scanning the walls -A light sensor was used to find the light from the candle once the robot was in the room -A compressed air tank was mounted on the robot so that it could extinguish the candle
The Maze
Assumptions
These are what we came up with before we started building -All walls are orthogonal -Only the robot can move, the maze is static -The room of the candle is known -The starting position of the robot is known
-The maze that our robot has to navigate consists of four rooms -The room where the candle resides is known, but the exact position of the candle in the room is unknown