Naval Battle Robot

We are Group Invictus from University of Michigan-Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute(JI), an excellent institute in Shanghai. The robot is built for Introduction to Engineering Competition. The main proposal of the competition is to use a robot to let the balls get to the opponents’ territory through the wall in the middle of the field. We will describe the competition in detail below.

1. Battle field

The battle field is a large rectangle divided into two areas with a wall in the middle.

The specific data is listed in the table.

2. Balls

Two types：

Word ball: 4 big balls of 70mm in diameter

Ping Pong ball: 8 small balls of 40mm in diameter (can go through the gap directly)

3. Competition time limitation：

Within 3 minutes

4. The way of scoring:

Move a big ball to your enemy’s field: get 4 points

Move a small ball to your enemy’s field: get 1 point

And you can move the opponent’s balls back.

5. During the game

The balls will be placed by Ta before the game

The robot will always start in starting area

You can replace the robot during the game

You should play an individual game first and being top 8 to enter the competitive game

And our group got 8 points (8 small balls and 0 big ball) and ranked 15 finally and cannot enter the competitive game.

Here is the video of the battle.

Our robot is aimed at pushing the balls with the shovel and it can move freely with controller.

Material preparation is listed in the table 1.1 and table 1.2.

Step 1: Circuit Diagram

Please refer to the figure: Circuit diagram

**WANING: BEWARE of the ELECTRIC SHOCK!

Something to do to avoid the electric shock:

1) Avoid connecting the positive pole and the negative pole of a battery together

2) Avoid connecting two batteries together

3) Avoid touching the positive pole and the negative pole of a battery together

4) Make sure the power is off before connecting the circuit or mending the car

After connecting, please cut off power supply or you may get an electric shock in the following steps.

Then do the programming

**Note that the program must be consistent with the circuit diagram.

Step 2: Components Fabrication

The car board: 180*150*2 (mm)

The diameter of the hole on the board is 5 （mm）

The shovel: 160*100*160 (mm)

The diameter of the wheels is 40 （mm）

We will show the fabrication and assembly in the next few step.

Step 3: Fabricate and Assemble the Two Driving Wheels

1. Use screws and nuts to fix the motor brackets (figure 4.1.1)

2. Fix the motor on the motor bracket using screws(φ4mm 10mm length) (figure 4.1.2 figure 4.1.3)

3. Install the coupler to the wheel (figure 4.1.4)

4. Fix the wheel to the motor bracket using screws(φ4mm 8mm length) (figure 4.1.5)

Step 4: Assemble the Universal Wheels to the Plastic Board

Fix the caster to the acrylic board using screws and nuts(φ4mm 5mm length)

Step 5: Stick the Plastic Strips on the Plastic Board

Note that the distance between the two strips must be the width of the shovel

Step 6: Fix the Shovel to the Plastic Strips Using Screws(φ4mm 15mm) and Electric Drill

Step 7: Fix the Circuit Module to the Plastic Board Using Screws(φ4mm 10mm) and Nuts

(Circuit module consists of the Arduino, the driving plate, the PS2 signal receiver and the wires)

Step 8: Stick the Batteries and the PS2 Receiver to the Plastic Board and Arrange the Wires

Step 9: Final System View

Figure 5.1.1, 5.1.2, 5.1.3 show the appearance of the car