Team project for the Mechatronics course, Spring 2019. Our challenge was to create a robot that could drive autonomously out of a starting area and then stack blocks using wireless communication from a controller.

In this project, I focused on programming and electronics. I learned a great deal about Arduino, reading data from sensors, and how to process the data. The robot implemented distance sensors, hall effect sensors, and encoders.

Hall Effect sensors detected magnets inside the wooden blocks. The data had to be filtered with a low pass amplifier to be used. The distance sensors were to detect walls on either side of the robot. The encoders were used extensively in autonomous driving. The robot had to drive in a straight line, in a full circle, and track distance to stop at a given spot.


The biggest challenge we encountered was the wireless communication. The Xbee transceivers we used had a tendency to read false data, which caused the robot to drive on its own. Solving this issue, putting in a series of checks to determine the data was accurate, took time away from working on other parts of the robot. And it introduces a significant lag between the controller and the robot.


Overall, the robot could perform well and was able to complete all the tasks that were assigned.