Search and Rescue

Community Challenges & Contests
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21

Excellent. My firefighter is

Excellent. My firefighter is still in pieces… first rev of the controller had pinout errors on my h-bridge so I had to send off a new batch of PCBs last night to fix it. Last year was a total blowout (ha ha) for me in the firefighting… my IR sensors were too sensitive to sunlight and the robot wasn’t able to set its thresholds correctly in order to detect the flame while ignoring the sun. Hopefully this year I’ve got it all sorted out. Looking forward to seeing yours!

22

Hello all

Thanks to new deadline, I managed this weekend to bring my search&rescue robot to a working state.

The major problem was to find the object hidden inside the maze. 

First approach was to use 2 Sharp IR sensors mounted on left and right side of robot for navigate inside the maze and a home made senzor - 3 photoresistors + 4 high intensity LEDs for detecting the target. After many hours spent trying to differentiate the object (toy) from background (maze walls) I gave up on this method and choose a more straight one. Navigate the maze and grab anything could be grabbed, in this case, the toy.

So, I switch from gripper to a “device” (the only one came to my mind at 3:00 AM) “equipped” with a velcro collar, the other half of velcro were fitted to the toy. You’ll see in the video and pictures what is about. The width of robot fitted with this thing is 26 cm.

Amazingly, I could not find in my daughter collection a teddy bear to fit my robot, so I pick a fairy, I hope is ok.

I build the maze from cardboard, the width of hallways is 36 cm, a little tight as I saw after programming phase began, but in the end was ok.

The search process works as follow:

- robot start navigating the maze and always keep on left side. In this time the “rotor” fitted with velcro is spinning continuously.

- when the toy is hit, the two half of velcro sticks togheter (not every time) and the toy is moved to the rear of robot where close a switch (the one used to start the robot). I hope this is visible on video, I plan anyway to record this process alone for a better view.

- after the switch is closed, the rotor is stopped, robot turns 180 deg. and swich from navigation to left side to navigation to right side and return to the entrance/exit. No path recording or processing is made, yet.

I will open a new node for this robot with pictures and details. 

Meantime, the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s90mJEbgWwE

http://www.vimeo.com/29541322

23

Beautiful! Well done Seba!

Beautiful! Well done Seba! Amazing job at building the maze too! See people? It CAN be done! No matter what being is saved from the depth of the maze, all it matters is The Little Robot That Could…

24

Thank you Gabi !

Thank you Gabi !

25

What a crazy-looking, but

What a crazy-looking, but effective robot. Nice work!

26

Crazy looking ? You’re gentle :smiley:

Thank you :slight_smile:

 

27

I see no reason to make a

I see no reason to make a poll or have a comunity vote on this challenge at this time. Only one robot was entered by the end date, so I declare it winner of the First Place. Congratulations Sebathorus!

For the other people who expressed interest in participating, you have until the end of the month to finish up your robots. Hurry! I’ve got some kits to give!

28

My robot status

Unfortunatly not able to make it, got to programming, was having problems with my arm and by the end of the night my robot was on the bench…in peices.

At this stage i wont have it ready by the end of the month due to a small problem of school, but have a break after from the 1st onwards and will complete my robot, and the task then even though their will be no prize, will be a challene for me programming wise.

However this being said it was great to see some one enter a robot for the competition, and the innovative way in which they collected the target, good job @sebathorus.

I feel as though i’ve let Robot-x down by registering my robot but not having it ready intime, but really i should be kicking my own ass that i had the opportunity to win some thing and futhure my robotics but i didn’t get round to it!

 

Any ways, I’ve said my part, again good job sebathorus and hopefully there will be another competition along these lines soon when i can have my robot working and competing as i had planed.(and still do!)

29

Sorry to hear you can’t make

Sorry to hear you can’t make it. Here is the deal, I have 2 more prizes, for 2 more robots, who ever enters, wins them, no matter of the end date. If there are more than 2 entered by the end date, then we’ll decide which of them is Second Place and Third Place. So, go ahead, finish your robot and enter it as soon as possible, you still have a chance to win something! I might through in more stuff in, I’ve got a bunch of unused things in my parts bin. Compass sensor, microcontrollers, motors, etc. You may win something just by participating.

Cheers!

30

Awesome, i’ll give it a shot

Awesome, i’ll give it a shot and get it done a soon as i can get some time to work on it. Hopefully get the mechanical part sorted out tomorrow afternoon. After that i just have to write the code, fingers crossed.

31

Hi,

Hi, I have just seen this compitition and am trying to complete an entry. I wanted to use the velcro collar method for picking up the bear, but have just realised I do not have any velcro. Would it be ok if i used 2 small magnets instead?

If not I will try to get some velcro in time for the dead line.

 

Thanks,

 

32

You’re welcomed to

You’re welcomed to participate! Use any method to catch/grab the toy and get it out of to safety.

33

Cool

Cool,

Thanks!

34

My robot is done,

I finished my robot just this evening,

https://www.robotshop.com/letsmakerobots/node/29161

35

Good entry! Your robot looks

Good entry! Your robot looks cool, navigates the maze perfectly, grabs the toy and continues navigating the maze. One thing you should add is a method to detect when the toy was grabbed so the robot can turn around and head back to the entrance. Kind of what Sebathorus did. The idea is go in, find the toy, grab it and get it back to the entrance. Your robot does that, but without knowing it really did good or not. So, since the general goal is achieved, you are a winner! Please send me a PM with your choice for a prize. Sebathorus chose a uServotino, since I gave him a uBotino when he visited me in Toronto this summer.

36

Cool,

Thanks heaps,

I agree that turning around would have been better. But I was in a big rush to get it finished in time.

Thanks again,

37

I’ve updated the challenge.

I’ve updated the challenge. The quest for a beer fetcher robot continues…

38

Can we have the beer on a

Can we have the beer on a platform? or does it just have to be the beer on the ground with nothing around, attached or under it?

39

Actually, you can have the

Actually, you can have the beer anywhere you like, just make sure the robot gets it to you :smiley:

Yes, the beer can be placed to be grabbed by the robot anywhere in it’s range. If you want to simulate the beer being on a shelf in a fridge you’re even encouraged to do that. If you can make the robot get the beer out from a fridge (be it a drink cooler or mini fridge) you get extra forum creed. This should be the next step of evolution, but if you can do it, go for it!

40

Is it still open?

Is it still open now? Are you still gnna give away a ubotino V3 or Robot Builder’s R-duino?