Technical Presentation

All:
Good morning Judges

Tim:
It’s my pleasure to introduce to you, the Chirpy Bots. Emile and Estee will the do the innovative design brief.

Estee:
Our superbly designed robot makes use of gears for a drivetrain. We chose this form of drivetrain as it is strong and reliable and easy to assemble. Our engine is placed in the middle of the robot as it gives use a balanced centre point. We then connected the engine in the centre of the robot to the outer wheels using a gear ratio of 1:1. Because we geared our robot it is 4WD which lets us get over most obstacles. Our 1:1 ratio gives us the perfect balance between power and speed. Our compact and sturdy design gives us manoeuvrability and reliability. We have placed struts coming down from the NXT controller to prevent the wheels from flexing.

Emile:
We have placed a touch sensor on the side of the robot so that in our final mission we can move our robot along the wall. We have also placed a light sensor at the front of the robot along with our touch sensor. They are close to the ground and because we have a light sensor there is more speed accuracy and reliability this allows us to function in multiple light conditions. Our ultra-sonic sensor is placed in the front of the robot and is at the optimal height to sense all objects on the board. The built in rotation sensors are easy to use and are perfect when we cannot use other sensors and it allows for precise movements.

Estee:
And now we’ll hand over to Michael and Andrew for the strategy and problem solving

Michael:
We make use of numerous attachments and extensions for specific missions we have attachable sensors for example in the final mission a touch sensor that is used for movement along the border wall. We also have extensions for our arm for certain hoops that are usually out of reach.

Andrew:
When programming we made sure to program in short missions so that if something goes wrong it will not affect other missions. After programming our numerous missions we timed each mission and then organised them from shortest to longest with an exception to the final mission.

Michael:
And now Alex will explain the finer details of Locomotion and Navigation.

Alex:
Once we had a mat we decided that we would build a driving robot to complete our missions. We also decided that it would be useful to have a 4WD robot to get to inaccessible locations. We also decided that wheels worked better over treads because wheels turned better and treads had problems with slipping. We started off by making a strong base which we could build on we then worked closely with the programmers to see which sensors needed to be where. After this was finalised we then placed the engines and other important sensors and the NXT onto the base. Once we had our base idea we then ran our test missions until we fine tuned the robot design into what you see here.

Alex:
Liam and Tim will cover the way we solved time issues with regards and our programming strategies.

Liam:
With our strategy we decided to do missions that were close together to save time. We also decided to collect hoops of the same colour to achieve the hand privileges.

Tim:
When programming we ran the programs several times to make sure that they were consistent. To be sure that we did not confuse our missions we numbered them according to the positions they must be done in along with a short description e.g. 1 Hoop. Because we used numerous sensors it allowed our program to be very efficient and reliable.

Tim:
Sean will cover the Structural influences in the robot.

Sean:
The robot was designed with sturdiness in mind so that it would be able to scale obstacles and take rough treatment during particular missions so that if it accidently crashed into an object we wouldn’t have to rebuild it each time. The robot was also designed so that the NXT could be removed and replaced with minimum hassle. The robot was created after everyone’s ideas were heard and considered so that a balanced robot could be designed. Our attachments are easy to use, lightweight and suited to their task for example the arm used to collect beacons.
If you have any further questions please feel free to ask if not we would like to show you a few excellent missions.

(Andrew will explain the mission)