The robot race

The goal of the project was to be able to transport 3 different types of balls to 3 different stations together with another group. Our group made the robot that would transport the balls to its stations.

The course was one of the first pure project courses and took place in 2018 throughout the spring. This was during the second year of mechanical engineering so knowledge of product development was very new here.

Robot racet: Projekt

Our robot

The robot was made with the help of Lego Mindstorm and 3D-printed parts. We had 3 different buckets for the different balls. The buckets could be tipped out using a shaft that could move between the buckets.

Programming was done using legomindstorm's own programming software. To follow the path, it had 2 light sensors and a color sensor. To drive forward and turn, 2 engines were used, one for each wheel.

The result

The day when it was time for the competition, they were finally time to show our results. Each team consisting of 2 groups ran one at a time. Time, detail and designs were reviewed by judges. Due to the changed position of the path, the light and the reflection of the light also became different, which made it difficult for many. In the end, only our robots managed to run the track for the allotted time. However, one of the transport spots went wrong, which resulted in two varieties of the different balls coming to the wrong place. It may be good to mention that where the balls would be placed was unknown until the day of the competition. So we made programs for all sorts of options. Another detail was that a person who was not in the group would choose a program and start the robot. Later they came to the conclusion that the person happened to take the wrong program, which resulted in the wrong deliveries to the stations. Despite this, we got the first prize as our robots were the only ones that actually did their job.