With the deadline here, I am presenting the current state of The Robocat. We have achieved nearly all of our goals by creating a wheeled robot with a super cute cat body. The Robocat can follow pre-programmed paths, identify a laser pointer dot, and display the current time with a seven segment display. Here's a video of The Robocat in action:
In all, I think we captured the vision laid out in our first blog post. That said, there are still a few features that I didn't have time to implement before the contest deadline.
- The first is to implement the laser pointer tracking feature. This would use the blob detection machine vision algorithm to translate the laser pointer location into left-right motor movement. This would be another weekend or two of development.
- A mode button. This will become more important as the functionality increases.
There are aome additional "nice to have" features that weren't included in the proposal, but would make The Robotcat a lot more useful.
- The system power is still supplied by an external source. A compact, lightweight battery pack will need to be included in order to make the robot truly mobile.
- A switch for the integrated laser pointer will improve safety. The IM03GR signal relay would be a great option to provide an enable signal or even provide modulation of the laser source to improve discrimination of the laser beam.
- General usability improvements like connecting setting the RTC, displaying system status on the seven segment display, etc.
- Additional sensors to enable autonomous mapping/navigation features.
Thanks for following along. This was a lot of fun.
-Jerahmie
