Autobotics Semi-Autonomous Rover

• Sidharth Brahmbhatt
• Lester Baczewski
• Muntasir Ali
• Brendon Brown

The directive of Team Autobotics is to design and create a semi-autonomous, ground-driven robot that is able to traverse an indoor environment and perform basic reconnaissance and exploration activities, while maximizing the efficiency of data in low bandwidth conditions to simulate extraterrestrial rover conditions. The user will connect to the device over a local wireless network interface and a live camera feed will be broadcast from the robot to the user. From the web interface the user should be able to fully discern the robot’s environment and be able to actively control the robot. The constraints of the WiFi module will allow a photo to be transmitted only every couple of seconds. The speed of the robot will be determined based on the photo transmission rate. In order to effectively assist movement and navigate in the presence of obstructions the robot must also be able to operate semi-autonomously with the use of a programmed controls system. It will use several ultrasonic and IR sensors to detect hazards and obstacles at a specified distance and warn the user of them. In the case of bad user input – i.e. the robot is told to drive into a wall, the program is able to detect this, reject or modify the input and present the feedback to the user that the path trajectory is invalid. In some cases, the device should be able to anticipate and minimize user input. All of this will come together with the integration of the Tiva C SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC3200 LaunchPad microcontroller as the mainboard and iRobot Create module. Due to its modularity, this robot can serve as a great instructional tool in introductory robotics classes as well as for testing, research and recreational activities.