Mechatronics

Battlebots and Race Cars

BattleBots

On a team of 4, we created a battle bot capable of moving, healing, tracking battlebot health, and swinging a hit stick to damage opposing battlebots.

Creating this battlebot had three distinct statements of work:

Mechanically designing a battlebot that was big enough to carry the necessary equipment but small enough to navigate the maze.
Creating an electrical circuit capable of sending power to 2 motors (for wheels) and a servo motor (for the hit stick/jellyfish net).
Coding the robot to respond to commands on a remote control that we also built from scratch.

BattleBots.mov

Objective

Blue team bots press the blue button while it's lit to register points. Bots can hit other battle bots' buttons to damage them.

Key video takeaways

At about 30 seconds, our car takes off. Our battlebot is the only one to successfully navigate the maze and get to the blue button right away!
Our battlebot presses the blue button for points, then blocks the other two red battlebots from getting in and pressing the button while it's lit.

Remote Control Car

The precursor to battlebots, we mechanically, electrically, and programmatically created a remote control car for a race. In a time trial amongst 30 teams, our team placed second!

Bowser.mov

Car Components

Mechanical structure
- Car body holds battery, circuit board, two motors, and a bowser shell for decoration.
- Wheel design
  - Back wheels have rubber bands added for extra friction. Single front wheel was created out of smooth wood so that it can turn left and right with minimal friction force.
Electrical Design
- Two independent motors are driven by a 9V battery and controlled by a handheld controller.
Software
- C programming used to control both car and controller in the race.

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