In this club I filled the role of lead electrical engineering student.

The GOAL was determined before I joined the club and was to create a robot capable of running the course in the OSU Mercury Remote Robot Challenge.

For RESEARCH I looked into the motor drivers since the motors had been already chosen, and ir sensors. This led to investigating the true capabilities of the motors to verify that the robot could climb the ramp. Once the motors where trusted I moved on to selecting the motor driver.

From here I created a BLOCK DIAGRAM of the basic parts needed as well as those needed to interface with a rasberry pi. 

The next step was to create a breadboarded PROTOTYPE so that the software guys could move forward.

I utilized KiCAD to generate a PCB that met the specifications needed to mount all the sub-boards and ICs so they could interface with the PI.

We TESTED the device and in EVALUATING it found flaws in the hardware. This led to a few redesigns to optimize functionallity or create functionality. 

At the competion the robot was evaluated based on its performance. It is my express desire to make the following changes in next year's project. 

• More complete distance sensing

• additional servos to manipulate the camera and minimize blind spots

• a power supply capable of pushing the motors so that they don't stall on carpet.

• a better user interface for the command system.

These details will be the starting place for next year's build. We will return to the research part of the process and look into improved electronics as well as alternative approaches. 

The image shown to the left(or below in mobile view) is the board created for this project.