Introduction

This webpage describes the product for the final project of ME218B: Smart Product Design. The final project is to design and build a robot to compete autonomously in a game called SPDL Happy Fun Ball. Robot design includes mechanical design, analog circuit design, and embedded software to control the robot. The robot is controlled using a Motorolla HCS12 E128 microcontroller.

The object of the game is to collect Super Happy Fun Balls (foam Nerf balls) by pressing a button on a dispenser, and then deposit them into goals of varying point value. Each robot has twenty balls in its dispenser for it to collect each game. The objective is to get as many points as possible within two minutes. Robots compete head to head on playing fields which are mirror images of each other. The game begins with a camera flash, and ends when two minutes elapses or when one robot has deposited all twenty balls in its dispenser. The robot with the most points at the end wins. The detailed rules of the game can be found here.

Robot sensing is achieved through the presence of different colored lines of tape at certain locations on the game field, and by infrared beacons present at all goals and at the ball dispenser, which pulse at differing duty cycles.

The purpose of this website is to document and present our team's robot design, and to provide enough information for another group or individual to construct an approximate replica of our robot.

A video of our robot completing one game during the competition (72 points scored) can be found here (approx 14MB of video)

Meet the Team

	Curt is a Ph.D. student in mechanical engineering working on haptic devices for surgical simulation.
Curt Salisbury
	John is a Master student in mechanical engineering. He wishes to conduct research at Ph.D. level in robotics and haptics.
(John) Duong Dang
	Allen is a Ph.D. student in civil engineering working on structural damage detection using wireless sensors.
Allen Cheung