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In the ISSEA STEM competition bot ball a team is tasked with transporting objects (such as balls) using automatons (such as bots). This year the board we were given contains several key issues. Namely the ladder and the randomised sorting areas. In this post i'm going to talk about how we are going to fix them.
The ladder: The ladder isn't much of a ladder and more of a series of rungs on and 45 degree angled bar on which a hoop i hung. Our goal is to move the hoop up or down the rungs. This seems simple and it provides the team to preform their task with a x4 score multiplier if completed perfectly. The problem is that the bar is hung high in the air and the robots have a hight limit. To get past this issue we are using a fire mens ladder. essentially it consists of two parallel poles connected by a single motor attached to the gear. when the motor turns, one of the poles is lifted, essentially doubling the length of the pole. any sort of hook can be attached to this pole and it can start in a compressed position allowing it to fit within the constraints.
The Sorter: The sorter is a series of small areas in which different objects can be placed. Placing certain objects in their corresponding colors nets you a MUCH higher score. The catch is that every round the colorised areas are randomised so creating a robot that runs just on timing wont net us the highest amount of points. The way around this is a bot that runs on a pattern, move to collect one object, then do a drive by of the different colored areas. The colored areas can then be scanned by a color sensor on the side of the bot. once the bot reaches its destination it will turn, deposit the object and return to the next task. hopefully these strategies will help us glean the maximum score possible and win 1st place this year.