Overall, everything went well for the final project and we were able to successfully achieve our project goals. We tried our best to stick with the project schedule we developed during the planning week, which was very helpful as it kept us on track. We used our time effectively during lab and meeting time, as we collaborated well together and sought help from the professor and the TAs when necessary.
Our robot is able to operate under two modes. In the automatic mode, it will move forward and search for target “Tom” on the left side using the contour method. Once the robot identifies the target in an initial capture, it will stop and take another picture to confirm whether the target is in the center of the view. If yes, then it would fire; if not, the robot will adjust its position relative to the target and keep running this cycle until the target is in the center. After the robot fires, it will display the “Happy Jerry” image and exit the program. On the other hand, in the manual mode, the interface will display four buttons, and user has the option to move forward, backward, stop or identify target. The identify target button will let the robot use the template matching to see if the target is in the center of view. If there is no target in view, or if the target is not in the center, the “keep searching” message will be displayed on the screen and it will return to the 4-button menu page; if the target is actually in the center of view, then the program will prompt the user to hit the “fire” button, and the screen will display the “Happy Jerry” image and exit. The aim of the robot is quite accurate and is able to launch the paper ball at the face of target “Tom”.
While working on the project, we tried various design approaches that did not work as expected. For example, we originally had the idea of using a nerf gun as the “ball launching” mechanism. However, as we received the nerf gun we purchased online, we found that the nerf gun needs a large force to pull its trigger as well as for reloading the nerf gun. Therefore, we switched to the mousetrap idea. In the beginning, we tried to modify the mousetrap so there was a trigger to release the lock pin. As it turned out, the triggering mechanism we made was not reliable and more importantly, not safe. That was when we decided to use the original setup of the mousetrap and used the method we described above in Hardware Design section. Another thing we tried that did not end up working was to use the regular electrical wire to connect the standard servo to the yellow catch on mousetrap. The ball launching mechanism using electrical wire is not reliable at all since we had to adjust the connecting wire every time it launches the paper ball.
We have followed the IEEE SA P1872.1 standard from IEEE while implementing the project. All parts are RoHS compliant. IEEE SA P1872.1 specifies unified standards of definition and implementation of tasks in robot control and automation. We also followed the standards for Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS), which specifies the restriction of specific hazardous materials found in hazardous product.
Most hardware and software design were developed and implemented by our group and we used the robot assembly and R-Pi and piTFT installation tutorials from previous lab assignments in ECE 5725. In addition, we used the Python, PyGame and OpenCV library from its online source. We do not expect our project to be patented. We have properly attributed all references and sources that we have used in the References section.
Our project has strictly adhered to the IEEE Code of Ethics. This project is used for academic purposes only, and it does not pose any threat to the “safety, health, and welfare of the public.” We have acknowledged all sources and references properly. If any safety threat doe arise in the future, we will try to resolve them and report them to the public immediately.
We have discussed in detail the Intellectual Property Consideration and Ethical Consideration section above. There is no legal restriction on our project that we know of at the moment.