Soda Can Retrieval Robot

 

 

 

Team Members:

 

 

 

 

 

 


Paul “Catfish” Arendt    Leslie DiMare      Danielle Lasater Bethany Jackson

 

 

 

Overview:

The purpose of this bot is to retrieve a certain soda can among other cans and bring it to an assigned person, or location by use of voice recognition.   The bot starts in the middle of the course, receives a command to find a specific type of soda, drives out the cans and spins around the find the correct can.  Once the correct can is found, a gripper is used to grab the can and bring it back to the start of the course.  Next a command is sent to the bot to bring the can to one of four people (locations).  The bot drives to that location, drops the can, and waits for the next command.  This process was done with 3 different types of soda cans and four different dropoff destinations.

 

Voice Recognition:

The first attribute of this bot was to recognize a voice command to know which soda to pick up and to know where to drop the can. This was done by using the Dragon Naturally Speaking program. Features of this program allow the user to dictate, edit and control virtually all Windows-based applications.  No additional coding was required for this feature, but each word used was specifically trained in the voice program.  In VB, this dictation controls all command buttons.  Buttons were inserted that were connected to each soda can (Coke, Sprite, and Orange Crush) and each person (Bethany, Danielle, Leslie, and Catfish).  The VB application was connected to the C code via Wireless Send, which allowed the recognition of each button to connect to the appropriate can color or location in C.

 

Color Sensing:

A color camera was used to identify the different colors of the three cans.  Each can was tested to obtain an appropriate color threshold which was then added to the C code and used to identify each can.  After sensing the color, the bot was coded to follow the correct can and grip it once the can was reached.

 

Obstacle Avoidance:

The bot was also coded to avoid obstacles that were placed in its way while delivering the can to the correct person.  However, the video on this website does not show any obstacles placed in the course.  Since the bot was coded to go to a specific person/location, it would correct its path if any obstacles get in the way.

 

 

 

A special shoutout to Dan the Man & Doctor Juan for a great semester!