Object Tagging with DE2Bot

Chris Hairston
Nicholas Jefferies
Alejandrina Patron
Matthew Pruett
John Riggins

Digital Design Lab

ECE 2031 – L05
11/30/2016

Georgia Institute of Technology

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

1
 Design Challenge Overview
• Control a DE2Bot to
- Locate objects in a prescribed area.
- Tag each object by bumping into it.
- Return to a home point after every tag.

• During the demo, the robot will

- Locate and tag 4 to 6 objects.
- Have 120 seconds to tag the highest number of objects
possible.

2
 The Arena
12 feet

8 feet

3
 Design Team’s Solution
• Create a functional and efficient design
- Move robot parallel to the 12 foot wall.
- Use only front and right sensors to detect objects.
- Once detected, move towards the object and tag it.
- Return the robot to its home position.

4
 Initial Orientation and Movement
• The robot will start in the home area.
• The robot will move parallel to the 12 foot wall.
• This approach simplifies the sensor filtering algorithm.

5
 Object Detection
• The robot will use its front and right sensors only. These are
sensors 2, 3, and 5.
• If the robot detects an object within 6 feet on its right side,
it will turn 90 degrees to the right and approach the object.
• If the robot detects an object in front of it within 1 foot of
the front sensor (sensor 3), the robot will tag the object in
front, make a 180 degree turn, and return home.

6
 Object Tagging
• The robot will tag objects closest
to home first.
• For objects detected with the right
sensor, the robot will wait 1
second before making the 90
degree turn to the right.
• The robot will move toward
objects in front of it until reaching
a distance of 15 cm away from the
object, and will then move for
1 second to tag the object.

7
 Returning Home
• To return home, the robot will roughly follow the
same path it took to get from home to the object.
• The robot will turn 180 degrees to face the 12 foot
wall and move forward unless it is already at the
wall.
• Once the 12 foot wall is reached, the robot will turn
90 degrees to its left, and move forward to reach
the home point.
• The robot will stop once it reaches 8 foot wall in
the home area.

8
Path for Returning Home

9
 Problems Encountered
• Odometry errors cause the robot to not turn accurately,
creating problems when trying to return home.
- The method to return home was modified to a simplified
version.
• The sonar sensors have difficulty detecting objects that are
at an angle and objects that are round.
- Optimization and debugging was done to detect objects
in most instances.
• The robot can run out of time before locating and tagging all
objects in the arena.
- The robot’s speed was increased for tagging objects.

10
 Results
Demo 1 Demo 2

Number of Objects Tagged 4/4 6/6

Returns to Home 1 2

Arena Collisions 0 3

Object Collisions 0 0

Time Remaining 45 seconds 5 seconds

Number of Retrievals 3 4

11
 Score
• Demo 1: 465 points
• Demo 2: 635 points
• Raw Score: 1735 points

12
 Discussion
• Balance between ambition and functionality
• Strengths of design
- Effective algorithm.
- Flexible design.
• Weaknesses of design
- Not the most efficient.
- Not optimized to detect small objects.
• Demo results
- The robot immediately turned to face the 8 foot wall after
tagging an object.
- The robot did not turn soon enough when returning home.

13
 Future Work
• Use occupancy grid maps.
- Map multiple objects at once.
- Know where the robot has already traveled.
• Detect small objects.
- Optimize sensor readings to be more accurate.
• Create a more efficient algorithm.
- Detect more objects in less time.

14
Object Tagging with DE2Bot
Q&A

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