Automated Pool Table

This robot is capable of scanning a pool table with a webcam to find the cue ball & striped balls, and then taking a shot at a striped ball using a pneumatic actuator.

It is a 5 degree of freedom robot designed by myself and two other Naval Academy students as our "CAPSTONE PROJECT" for Systems Engineering.

Some day, you'll be able to play real games like billiards/fooseball/airhockey against robots either in person or via the web!

Enjoy!



(copyright U.S NAVY! 2008)

Step 1: The basics...phew!

How's it work?
1) Webcam takes a picture
2) MATLAB vision program starts up
3) Human defines location of robot and arena area
4) Balls are identified
5)
a)human tells which ball to hit and which pocket...or...
b)artificial intelligence (AI) program figures it out!
6) Program figures out all the angles to make a shot, passes variables to Microcontroller
7) Microcontroller energizes longitudinal system, horizontal system, 3DOF aaaaand....
8) A shot is taken!

Comments

[tinker234]

wow be nice atchament to a pool table for a opentet

[nuckthebuck]

i know its been awhile since the making of this amazing looking project. but some new concepts with new software....Ever hear of labview? its a programming language used widely by FIRST a robotics organization competing robots over 3000 robots this year. one team had made a autonomous guitar hero playing robot that im also jealous of. labview is a block drag and drop and wire together simple programming. i have seen teams that have made amazing automomous modes using this program mixed with a webcam. webcam needs a ip address and pulled into through labview via a dashboard (computer/laptop). this would be very simple programming knowing the formulas already. another bonus is its one program vs your 3 i believe u mentioned. look into this language. make your future easier.

i know i get off topic but labview is beast and take a few hours to download it and test it. you should pick up on it easily with your background knoledge

[YakAttack]

well, I've been loaded down with work in the "real world" lately, but if anyone out there needs general advice to get their own original pool table project rolling, just let me know!

[GWJax]

this is a MUST build!!! do you have the complete set of instructions for this pool shooter?

[YakAttack]

A complete set? Nope, not yet. This particular robot used parts and software that might be harder to come by (and also expensive!). But! I will try and help you build your own version, though, giving you the basic concepts and parts ideas... Ideally, this project could be made with open source parts and brains that anyone could get their hands on!

[GWJax]

Ok with that said I'll design my own when I get time and the post the complete set along with the source code for everone. Thanks for your return comment

[YakAttack]

Also,
for everyone who doesn't have a background in MATLAB (the project above used the Vision Toolbox), I found some free software called roboRealm
that appears to be fairly robust for vision programming.

It has the ability to send data via serial, so you could send data very easily to most M.C.s

I personally would like to see someone try this project with a few arduino boards...

[GWJax]

ya I just downloaded the roboRealm a few days ago but have not installed it yet, just have not had the time yet and those arduino boards are great too.

[cokebottle tuque]

Well there is the rep rap electronics kit for 150$ witch would bee a good starting point if you want to use stepper motors with an arduino.

[YakAttack]

The MATLAB vision program we made which found the balls and distinguished them took less than half a semester, and then we modified it to work using a webcam. We spent about half a semester on some of the basic design metrics (aka what do we want it to do?), but the nitty gritty design and construction took less than a semester.

[panzer]

how long did it take you to make that??????? well, it looks amazing and i watched the vid it works coooooolyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!

[LinuxH4x0r]

Cool! Looks complicated.

[YakAttack]

Well, I'll get the basic overview up soon, but till then, just ask questions and I'll answer them! Be sure to check out the video above! Thanks!