Team 03: Bryan Fink, Dan Roy, Matt Uhle

Robot: .RABIES

Strategy

Here is a link to our original plan.

Here is the actual plan:

1. Track the other robot using IR and ram it for the first 13 seconds of the contest.
2. After the attack, attempt to orient and get to a place on the board from which we know how to get to the balls - the middle of the board.
3. Attempt to capture a ball.
4. Get back to the middle-level scoring area.

Physical Design

Our robot is designed to take a beating - at least in the front end. We designed the front as sort of a battering ram. It is very strong and braced as much as possible to the main body.

The gear train is built for speed. Its ratio is 1:45. In order to allow the robot to be fast and strong at the same time, we also used three motors to drive each wheel. The motor, gear, and wheel assemblies are all connected to each other in such a way as to prevent undue torque from weight on top of the robot from the battery pack and the handyboard.

The back end is designed to grab balls. A gate on each side (left and right) raises and lowers to trap a ball. A small wall on the outer side of these arm helps to keep the balls in our possession while maneuvering around the board. Bump sensors are mounted along the forward wall to detect when a ball is held, and color sensors are mounted on the gates to test the color of the balls. Each gate is controlled by a separate servo to allow independent gate control.

A caster was added in the back of the robot to aid in driving. We noticed that it was difficult to control each of the two wheels accurately enough to keep the robot going straight. The caster corrected this. We also made it servo-controlled to allow us to make turns more easily.

Sensors other than the gate sensors are:

• IR Sensors: Mounted below the IR beacon. These allow us to track the other robot while we are attacking it. We mounted three in the front and one in the back to allow for a greater resolution for more precise tracking while the opposing robot is in front of us.
• Shaft Encoder: Mounted above right wheel. This allowed us to make more accurate turns
• Start Sensor: A photo resistor is mounted on the bottom of the robot to sense the start light. Notice that it is extremely low to the ground and shaded by the rest of the robot. This is why we never false started.
• Table Color Sensors: Mounted at four positions around the robot. These detect the color of the table below us. You will notice cardboard around them. This is to shade the sensors from external light, in order to get a more accurate color reading.
• Forward Bump Sensors: Mounted on the front of the robot to detect when we run into a wall or another robot. Unfortunately, these were not mounted strongly enough and fell off during competition. This is the reason that the robot did nothing but "attack" during the competition. It would repeated drive over the bump sensor that had fallen off and think it hit a wall, back up, and try again.

Pictures

	Here you can see the back side of the robot: ball gates on either side of the steering caster.
	Here is a side view: you can see the sturdy front, the mess of wiring, and the IR sensors complete with fins to limit the field of view of each sensor.