Team 9 BE1200 Winter 2014 Final Exam Project Design Process:

1. Objectives: For the Final project, we were to design a robot that could move around the board, pick up green balls and move them out of the court, while not doing this to the white balls around the board. 2. User requirements: The user only has to activate the robot while it is on the board by pressing the run button and allowing the program to run its course. 3. Identify constraints: The constraints on this project are the time frame it is to be completed in, the amount of inputs and outputs of the RCX brick, and the functions that the robot can perform. 4. Establish functions: The functions of the robot are to move around the track and pick up green and white ping pong balls and to check the color, and if the ball is green, it is to be dumped outside of the board. When a white ball is picked up, the robot backs up a little bit and throws the ball back into the ring. When a green ball is picked up, the robot backs up until the touch sensor is triggered meaning it has hit the wall, and then throws the green ball outside of the board which is what it is meant to do. 5. Establish design specifications: 1 RCX micro-controller w/6 AA batteries 3 Lego 9V motors 1 Lego light sensors 4 wheels of varying size, 1 64T gear,1 24T gear, and 1 Lego touch sensor The robot is based off of steer bot because of the precise maneuverability that the robot can perform. There is a carriage that sits above all the inputs and outputs on the brick. This carriage holds the mechanism for picking up the ping-pong balls and throwing them. On the undercarriage which is steer bot, a light sensor has been placed so that the ping-pong balls can be read and on the back of the undercarriage a touch sensor has been placed so that when the robot backs up into the wall, it know that it has hit the wall. 6. Generate alternatives: The first version of the robot was very similar to that of what it is no, with a lift am and based on steer bot, but it was not sturdy enough and was very difficult to access the inputs and outputs of the bot. There was also no touch sensor on the back of the robot. The next version of the robot was more structurally sound, but we could not get the arm to work because a gearing ratio could not be figured out, and as a result we tried to make the throw arm lighter, but even that did not work. There was still no touch sensor on the back of the robot. Then we built the current version of the robot. The robot is very sturdy and reinforced in the proper places. The touch sensor was added to the back and the gearing ratio works. The throwing arm, although heavy, is structurally sound and moves the way it is supposed to when the motor is activated that powers is.

8. Test and evaluate design see Testing Tables 9. Refine and optimize design see Testing Tables