MECHANICAL ENGINEER
The X-Tractor (Stanford ME 218B)
About the Project
The objective of the project was to design and build an autonomous robot (TRACTOR) capable of transporting game pieces (MINERS) to designated scoring regions to accumulate points. The game board consisted of 16 uniquely colored squares arranged in a grid format. At any given point in the game, four of these squares were designated as scoring regions: one that can be exclusively used by red team, one that can be exclusively used by blue team, and two that can be used by either team. Points were awarded for the number of seconds that a single MINER was in the correct scoring region. Two robots competed over the course of a 2 minute and 18 second game to see which could accumulate the most points.
The Robot
We designed our robot, the XTractor, to reliably transport our team's MINER's to our scoring regions and remove enemy MINER's from them. Our robot used a color sensor to determine its location on the board, an accelerometer to detect its orientation, an IR sensor to detect the IR pulses emitted by the MINERs, and an electromagnet to secure the MINER during transport. Our general strategy consisted of the following steps:
Results
Our robot performed well in the final competition, finishing as a semifinalist and holder of the second-highest score in the competition.
My Role
As the mechanical lead for the team, I completed the majority of the mechanical design for the robot. I also helped implement the Navigation code to allow the robot to move around the board and designed some simple circuits for the robot's indicator LED's.
More detailed information about the project, including all schematics and code listings, can be found here:
CAD
Media
