Engineering Projects/BallBot/Howard Community College/Fall2011/501 BBotz2

Electronic Sections Expected

Problem Statement

Get a basketball to balance on a 3 wheeled base and then control the wheels individually to rotate and sping the basketball without allowing it to fall out from the wheels.

Team Members

Corey

Kang

Teddy Hanson

Summary

Poster

Ballbot speaker
Spine trigger
Spine
Torso
Exposed base
Wheel back
Wheel front
Rollers and wheel assembly

Story

Based on this video the goal of the project is to first build a robot upon which a basketball can be mounted and the wheels can be controlled individually to spin the basketball around without losing control or causing the basketball to fly off the wheels. Then the goal would be to make that same robot balance on the basketball and move around while maintaining balance.

Decision List

Dismantle Tribot.

Program an Arduino instead of using the boards the Tribot came with.

Material List

Arduino

Wowwee Tribot and all attached pieces it comes with from box.

Screwdriver.

Software List

Arduino

Java (to program Arduino)

Time

Estimated time spent dimantling Tribot ~4 hours with 2 focused solely on the base.

6+ hours minimum to program Arduino, this includes time spent to learn Java from scratch.

Tutorials

Free Java tutorials and lessons

Next Steps

Write a program to control the wheels individually and work with the remote of the Wowwee Tribot. The current remote and boards interface still, but the wheels cannot be controlled individually as the project stands. Also, with the physical construction of the ballbot a base is needed to mount the wheels on and the power source needs to be moved from between the wheels, probably lowered to serve also as a bridge between the base and wheel tripod where the wheels will be mounted. Also, wheels motors may have to be moved closer together, but this may not be possible as new ways to hold the motors may need to be devised(they are currently in their original base and secured solidly).