Mechatronics project


Robotics project for ME 210 (Introduction to Mechatronics)

See the following website we made for more information about our project:
https://d-optimus-dt.weebly.com

My personal contributions:
  • Designed and CAD most of the mechanical structures, including the driving base, the cannon, and the cannon's angled mounting (the only mechanical structure I did not CAD was the stepper-driven ball feeder)
  • Built and wired the powertrain, using an H-bridge to allow the DC motors to spin forwards and backwards
  • Analyzed the DC motors in MATLAB to determine usage of current and thus design the electronics accordingly
  • Programmed the robust line tracking functionality using C++ (through an Arduino) and infrared tape sensors (consisting of a phototransistor and IR LED pair), including determining a finite state machine for this line tracking subsystem
  • Designed the circuit for the cannon/shooter, including the usage of an op-amp, MOSFETs, and buck converters

Overall this project was a ton of fun.  I enjoyed working with my friends and learning much more about electronics.  We were the third team to complete the checkoff and were thus seeded 3rd place at the tournament.  In general it just felt very fascinating to learn how to make a robot.

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