COM310-Zahar

Project Update Photos

Discussion

One of the primary challenges I encountered with my robot was wall avoidance. Although the robot occasionally swiveled from side to side to widen its field of view, it struggled to fully comprehend the dimensions of the colony space. This often resulted in collisions with walls and other obstacles. To address this, I reconfigured the sensors as shown above, adding a ping sensor to cover the left and right blind spots of the robot.

Another significant issue was synchronizing the speeds of the two continuous servos. Initially, I tried to match their speeds through trial and error with the settings. However, this proved ineffective due to how the robot's balance in different positions impacted wheel rotation. I attempted to resolve this by using two servos of the same brand, but the impact was minimal. Ultimately, I opted to modify the code to make it adaptive to speed variations. If it's not a bug, it's a feature!

Obstacle Avoidance Example

Videos

DC Water Hose Example

Final Presentation

Code File:

Zahar’s robot code

(Click the Link ^^)

Future Work

In future work, one of the first improvements I aim to make is to enhance the speed of my robot's search. Currently, the robot operates in a BFS (Breadth-First Search) style, primarily because the wheels do not allow it to maintain a straight trajectory. This limitation forces a slower movement and hinders the robot's ability to lock onto the target plant. To address this, I plan to integrate DC motors and reprogram the code to improve maneuverability.

Another significant upgrade would be the addition of a camera. Currently, my robot differentiates plants from other obstacles based on height alone, which is not always reliable. By incorporating a camera and utilizing Python libraries for image recognition, the robot could more accurately distinguish between plants and other objects in its environment.