Overview, Competition, ART, Soccer, Combat, Sumo, UT-FIRST, Competition, Overview, Overview, Competition, Overview, Competition |
On Saturday, July 24th, 2010, UTRA's Autonomous Rover Team (ART) attended the Robot Racing competition at the University of Windsor. The team arrived in the city of Windsor a day earlier on Friday, July 23rd at 5:00 AM (five team members boarded the 1 AM Greyhound; talk about dedication!). Click on the picture to read more about what happened.
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UTRA was on CTV's Canada AM, Live on Wednesday, May 26, 2010. The interview was to cover our recent Gold medal in RoboGames 2010.  |
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Toronto Star conducted an interview with us after UTRA Combat team won the Gold medal at RoboGames 2010. Please visit the article penned by Katie Daubs on Toronto Star website.
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Photo courtesy of Rene Johnston, Toronto Star.
ART spends half of its time developing modular components that are competition-independent, and the other half on a specific robot meant for a specific competition. Some examples or potential examples are:
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The Autonomous Rover Team (ART) designs and builds the components for several robots. Components are designed to be modular and chassis-independent. Therefore we will build a chassis specific to a competition, install or pre-built components to make it autonomous, then tweak the code to competition-specific details. Sounds simple, right? Now we just need you to make those ‘pre-built’ components :)
MechanicalTo date, UTRA has been modifying off-the-shelf vehicles like electric wheelchairs and RC trucks. We need mechanical students with intermediate knowledge to help us make the required modifications (like computer mounts, sensor mounts, etc.). We would love to build a chassis from scratch, but we’re waiting some highly motivated mechanical students to take the lead! ElectricalART is a great place to learn how to build some simple circuits and gain some hands-on experience in wiring, soldering, etc. We need circuits that range from PCBs for our microelectronics, to high voltage (48V-DC), high current (100A) circuits. Learn and build protection circuitry, motor controllers, filters, and much more! SoftwareFor high-level artificial intelligence (AI), ART uses off-the-shelf software packages to keep code modular and integration easy. We program in C++ and C#, but are not opposed to Java and Python. Learn how to use and make sense of sensor data to accomplish a task. Test your algorithms in simulation, before putting them on the real robot. We do our low-level (motor control, analog sensor interface) control on Atmel AVR microcontrollers. We program exclusively in C – we are opposed to assembly. Learn the basics of how to move a motor, read a sensor, communicate with a computer, and much more! SensorsA robot is only as good as its sensors. ART buys a few high-end sensors and shares them across robot platforms. A large portion of our budget goes to these sensors, so we need people that know them inside and out. What they’re capable of, how to communicate with them, how to protect them, and which new sensors are required! |
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UTRA's Autonomous Rover Team (ART) attended the Robot Racing competition at the University of Windsor on Saturday, July 24th, 2010. The team arrived in the city of Windsor on Friday, July 23rd at 5:00 AM (five team members boarded the 1 AM Greyhound); talk about dedication! After a quick taxi ride through the small and humid city, the team quickly checked-in to the comfortable Alumni Hall and Conference Centre and immediately began working on their not-quite-ready autonomous mobile rover: Da Boss! While two members worked on the image detection as well as obstacle-avoidance algorithms for the AI of the robot, the other three members scrambled to get the motors of Da Boss working properly. After many hours of electrical and mechanical debugging, the team was unable to fix the electronic speed control (ESC). Due to unavailability of electrical components and the complexity of the ESC, the team abandoned hope of fixing the current ESC and set out to find a few chassis. Although the team had only 24 hours left to put together a new robot and get it following lanes and following traffic rules, ART did not give up!
After failing to find a suitable RC chassis, the team reverted to their most dire solution: using a relay to send bursts of power to Da Boss's motors. However, that required the motors to actually turn, which they weren’t. Luckily, after the second wave of the team arrived in Windsor, they were able to find a broken connection between the motors of the robot and the power source. The horrible grinding noise of the motors was received by an ecstatic cheer of the whole ART as hope renewed. After an all-nighter of electrical rewiring, soldering, and spontaneous redesigning, the team finally got Da Boss moving! As the software guys uploaded their algorithms to the robot, the team awaited, crossing their fingers. And lo-and-behold, we have success! Yay! The robot intelligently manoeuvres its way down the hallways of the hotel! Unfortunately, Da Boss's relays weren’t able to move the robot smoothly enough to give sufficient momentum to its steering servo. Also, the obstacle-avoidance algorithm did not predict the miniature size of the pylons. Rushed by time restrictions and too many last-minute challenges, the team was not able to reproduce Da Boss's spectacular performance in the hotel's hallways and thus, did not qualify for the competition. However, ART was rewarded by extremely valuable experience and knowledge from their trip to Windsor. With all the lessons learned and wisdom gained, the ART is looking for gold at the next Robot Racing competition!
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 UTRA currently has a team of two SoccerBots with all the equipments. We are in the process of developing the necessary algorithm to compete in RoboGames and other Microsot leagues. |
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The following is a typical setup for a soccer game (in the robot world!)
 Game strategies and Image Processing are two of many important elements of Robot Soccer Game. |
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RoboGames
Name of Event: MiRoSot (Micro Robot Soccer Tournament) 5:5 / 11:11 (middle & large league) Number of Robots per Event: Five/Eleven per team (10-22 total) Length of Event: 10 minutes Robot Weight Range: 650g Robot Dimensions: 7.5cm x 7.5cm x 7.5cm Arena Specifications: 220cm x 180cm / 400cm x 280cm Robot Control Specifications: Autonomous cited from RoboGames.net |
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