Rosie the Riveter

Why?  I started this project to learn as much as I possibly could about robots. From what sensors are best to the ins and outs of robots…exactly what makes them work.  I built Rosie for the sole purpose of entering her into the Trinity College Autonomous Fire Fighting Robot Festival

Robot Design  Rosie was created with lots of love and patience.  She is designed with 3 layers.  The bottom layer holds the motors, wheels, battery packs, and UV-Tron as well as the sensors.  The Middle layer holds handy board  While the top layer is for the Servos, Eltec and CO2.

Handyboard  Handyboard is the onboard computer. It was designed by Fred Martin in the early 1990’s and was very influential in the robot world when it first came out.

Motors  DC motors  Servo motors  The DC motors are used to make the robot move.  One servo motor is used to make the Eltec Pyro sensor spin while the other servo is used to push the tab on the Carbon Dioxide container.

Sensors  IR Sensors: GP2D12  Line Sensors: QRB114  UV-Tron  Eltec Pyro Sensor

Code  Rosie is coded in Interactive C, a programming language used mainly for programming robots.

Description of Trinity  Every Spring Trinity College hosts a fire fighting robot festival.  Each Robot is supposed to go through a maze, find the candle and extinguish it.  The maze is made up of four rooms. The candle can be in any one of the rooms. But would never be located in one of the hallways.

Map:

Operating Modes  In the standard operating mode the maze has a staircase, carpeting, wall hangings and wall paper. The carpeting can be any color and of any texture. The wall hangings can include mirrors and tapestries.  Other operating modes include: extinguisher mode, sound start, furniture, clutter, uneven floors and return mode.

How to solve the problem  Rosie was designed and coded to start with a sound start and go from room to room. In each room she would check for the candle if there was no candle she would continue onto the next room. If the candle was there she would check for it with the pyro sensor and then move forward in the angle in which she found the candle until she came into the white circle for the candle. Next she would scan again with the pyro sensor, line up with the candle and spray CO2 on it.

Thanks  Special thanks to the entire CS department and especially to Scotty. This project could not have been completed without his integral guidance and support. Thank You.