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)

pooltable - Copy.MPG
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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!

success.MPG
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Step 2: Longitudinal System

Basics?
-Rolls the robot down the table...

Steps Involved?
-Gets distance the robot needs to travel long-ways with the table
-DC Motor & drive chain kick in
-Built in encoder tells distance travelled
-Motor controller adjusts power accordinglyh
-Longrail arrives in place!