Well, I'm back to take care of my log after quite a long period! Yeah, its not easy even to have proper meals when you are a part of the Project team of K '09. So, now that I'm back, without much bla bla bla, I'll directly jump into what I wanted to do all these days - post about our Kurukshetra Mega project.
This year's Mega project for Kurukshetra was A Strategic All-Terrain Robotic Platform. I was a part of the Mechanical Team comprising two - myself and Arun seashatri for the project. Santhosh, Vijayakumar and Karthikeyan took care of the electronics and programming part.
The objective
Our objective was to build a small robust unit that could navigate in rugged terrain and tackle small obstacles and most importantly do a surveillance work.
The Construction
We had certain things to keep in mind before starting the construction..
1) The most important thing - ALL TERRAIN NAVIGATION
2) Effective suspension - For enhanced camera feed from the vehicle
3) Sturdiness - our imported 130 RPM, 24 V motors may very well disintegrate the unit if it has a weak frame. Moreover it should hold 2 12 V UPS batteries each weighing more than 2.5 Kg.
4) An effective arm to pick small objects
Now, for the first concern - all terrain navigation - we had to decide on the type of wheels. We had a look at the trainer wheels in kids' cycles and thought that it would work out for us. Then we worked on the suspension. We fell upon the springs used in the gear box of ambassador cars. With the essential parts in hand, the design of the body was done easily. All that we had to do then was - go to the workshop; cut the metal (we used Mild Steel) ; put the things in place and bolt them! Wait, I forgot to tell about the arm! Even before deciding on the wheels, we finished the construction of the arm using 6mm thick Aluminium plates. Seshatri came up with an effective idea of a pulley system that could make the maximum use of low torque motors. It was very simple yet effective considering the limited options we had.
Finally after some two months(semester exams slowed us down), we were done with the chassis. It was time for a test run! The first test run gave us a BIG BIG BLOW!! Yeah, we totally forgot the "Buckling and twisting" nature of springs during the construction. The very high torque motors that we used made the springs twisted in different directions and caused big variations in the alignment of wheels. We had to use unconventional methods like placing bolts and clamps at appropriate places to control the twisting. But we couldn't stop the buckling. Only during the next test run, we realised that buckling - which is considered to be a bad aspect in suspension, actually helped us save the bot from the juggernaut of the motor!! The initial acceleration was immense that it could have toppled the bot without the spring that absorbed the force. Finally we added the gripper to the arm and mounted the arm. Santhosh turned up with better wheels for the bot - those wheels used in trolleys seen at airports. That type of wheel impressed all and we used that finally. (I'm simply sayin "we mounted the arm".. this is an understatement! we had to work for days and experienced sleepless night in doing these works!)
The Base Console
Atlast, after a lot of fine tuning and adjustments, the base console was ready. The base console was the most attractive part of the bot. The base being a computer, the console application displays
1) The camera feed
2) Parameters like system voltage, system current, motor supply voltage, remaining battery power etc..
3) The GPS module placed in the bot displays the coordinates of its current position and its velocity
4) Google map embedded in the application provides visuals of its location
Due to unexpected and shocking happenings like burning of TV tuner card in the computer, failure of the wireless transmitter of camera and so on just on the day before the date of display, we had to postpone the date of display by 2 days. After doing the necessary changes, we finally had a good show during the display. One thing which most people like about it was the unique suspension system ;-)..
Right now, I dont have the screenshots of the base console with me. So, I'll upload them later. as for now, I'll upload the only pic of the bot that I've got
This year's Mega project for Kurukshetra was A Strategic All-Terrain Robotic Platform. I was a part of the Mechanical Team comprising two - myself and Arun seashatri for the project. Santhosh, Vijayakumar and Karthikeyan took care of the electronics and programming part.
The objective
Our objective was to build a small robust unit that could navigate in rugged terrain and tackle small obstacles and most importantly do a surveillance work.
The Construction
We had certain things to keep in mind before starting the construction..
1) The most important thing - ALL TERRAIN NAVIGATION
2) Effective suspension - For enhanced camera feed from the vehicle
3) Sturdiness - our imported 130 RPM, 24 V motors may very well disintegrate the unit if it has a weak frame. Moreover it should hold 2 12 V UPS batteries each weighing more than 2.5 Kg.
4) An effective arm to pick small objects
Now, for the first concern - all terrain navigation - we had to decide on the type of wheels. We had a look at the trainer wheels in kids' cycles and thought that it would work out for us. Then we worked on the suspension. We fell upon the springs used in the gear box of ambassador cars. With the essential parts in hand, the design of the body was done easily. All that we had to do then was - go to the workshop; cut the metal (we used Mild Steel) ; put the things in place and bolt them! Wait, I forgot to tell about the arm! Even before deciding on the wheels, we finished the construction of the arm using 6mm thick Aluminium plates. Seshatri came up with an effective idea of a pulley system that could make the maximum use of low torque motors. It was very simple yet effective considering the limited options we had.
Finally after some two months(semester exams slowed us down), we were done with the chassis. It was time for a test run! The first test run gave us a BIG BIG BLOW!! Yeah, we totally forgot the "Buckling and twisting" nature of springs during the construction. The very high torque motors that we used made the springs twisted in different directions and caused big variations in the alignment of wheels. We had to use unconventional methods like placing bolts and clamps at appropriate places to control the twisting. But we couldn't stop the buckling. Only during the next test run, we realised that buckling - which is considered to be a bad aspect in suspension, actually helped us save the bot from the juggernaut of the motor!! The initial acceleration was immense that it could have toppled the bot without the spring that absorbed the force. Finally we added the gripper to the arm and mounted the arm. Santhosh turned up with better wheels for the bot - those wheels used in trolleys seen at airports. That type of wheel impressed all and we used that finally. (I'm simply sayin "we mounted the arm".. this is an understatement! we had to work for days and experienced sleepless night in doing these works!)
The Base Console
Atlast, after a lot of fine tuning and adjustments, the base console was ready. The base console was the most attractive part of the bot. The base being a computer, the console application displays
1) The camera feed
2) Parameters like system voltage, system current, motor supply voltage, remaining battery power etc..
3) The GPS module placed in the bot displays the coordinates of its current position and its velocity
4) Google map embedded in the application provides visuals of its location
Due to unexpected and shocking happenings like burning of TV tuner card in the computer, failure of the wireless transmitter of camera and so on just on the day before the date of display, we had to postpone the date of display by 2 days. After doing the necessary changes, we finally had a good show during the display. One thing which most people like about it was the unique suspension system ;-)..
Right now, I dont have the screenshots of the base console with me. So, I'll upload them later. as for now, I'll upload the only pic of the bot that I've got
the pic s old satar rite ?
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