Sensor Integration with Autonomous Robots
Objectives
Build and program three robots that work together to solve and escape a maze.
Outcomes and Contributions
Three robots are trapped in a maze. Each robot must traverse the maze autonomously to find clues to allow at least one of the robots to escape. As part of a team, I was responsible for building and programming a robot that searched the maze for an IR beacon. The presence of this beacon indicated the location of a button, which the robot would then press. The success of this robot allowed a second robot to scan a temporarily revealed April tag, which sent the escape coordinates and exit code to a third robot, which subsequently exited the maze. After honing my robot’s ability to find the IR beacon, I worked with my teammates to integrate our 3 robots’ functionalities. We were able to successfully demonstrate our robots’ ability to work together to escape the maze.
Technical Details
Each robot was equipped with a WiFi connected ESP 32. This enabled communication between each robot via posting a message to an MQTT server. Each robot also was equipped with a light sensor which enabled line following, and an ultrasonic sensor, which aided in identifying walls. The IR beacon finding robot was equipped with an IR sensor. At each intersection, the robot rotated in place to scan for the presence. If it was not found, the robot continued to the next intersection. If the beacon was found, the robot would drive straight, eventually colliding with and pressing a button. This revealed an April tag which could be scanned by another robot. The April tag is always located at the top of a ramp. Therefore, the second robot would search until its IMU detected a change in elevation. The second robot would scan the April tag and send its information via the MQTT server to the third robot. This information included the coordinates of the maze escape and the code required to open the escape door. The third robot would path find to the given coordinates, flash the given code using an IR LED, opening the escape door. It would finally drive forward to escape the maze.
Fig. 1 - All 3 Robots
Fig. 2 - IR Beacon Finding Robot
Fig. 3 - Final Demo Video