PROJECT: Autonomous Rover | Autumn Aldrich

AUTONOMOUS ROVER

Project Overview

AUTONOMOUS ROVER

Designed and manufactured claw mechanism in Solidworks for rover design elective
- utilized pixycam color tracking
- added 2:1 torque gear ratios to account for servo strength
Designed the creative element of our rover design: MO from WALL-E

The goal for the project was to design an autonomous rover that follows a line track using IR sensors and then picks up a can using a color sensor and a claw mechanism. On my team of 7, I was the CAD design lead in charge of designing and manufacturing our claw and our decoration inspired by MO from WALL-E.

Design Process

1. DESIGNING THE CLAW

For this project, we were given two servos to work with - one for opening and closing the claw and one for the lift mechanism. I sketched out my design ideas in Procreate and created a CAD of my prototype in SolidWorks.

To maximize the strength of the claw grip and lift mechanism while preventing overheating of the servos, I added 2:1 torque gear ratios to each of my rotation points. I also added holes of the ends of the claw to mount rubber bands for better grip on the can.

first prototype:

2. REFINING THE CLAW DESIGN

PROBLEM: smaller 16 tooth gear kept popping off the servo since there was no available screw mount
- SOLUTION: designed an additional small piece that could be mounted on our existing claw (saving material) that kept the gear from coming off

PROBLEM: the color sensor that was trained to detect red was detecting the orange rubber bands
- SOLUTION: changed rubber band color to yellow

3. CREATING MO DESIGN

As a team, we decided to model our rover after MO from WALL-E, as he is also a line following robot in the movie. MO's body also served to cover up our wiring, giving our rover a more clean and refined look. Additionally, in later versions of our rover, we decided to move the IR sensors to the middle of our chassis since the close proximity to the wheels affected the line following accuracy. Since MO's body darkened the area around the IR sensors, it greatly improved the line tracking performance.