RatVision

For out project we decided to implement tiny car robots equipped with Raspberry Pi's and ultrasonic sensors to map out rooms. These robots which we lovingly called rat bots employ a search algorithm from the computer meaning the computer and rat bots operate in real time communication. The rat bots use ultrasonic sensors to detect all edges mapping walls and furniture in a room. The search capabilities of these robots makes them useful in many different situations such as search and rescue, infiltration, and if equipped with proper hardware RF jamming. Throughout this challenge many problems arose such as hardware concerns as the cheap Walmart RC car gave troubles when turning prompted by our code. This caused us to adapt and use a wedge on wheels to prop our car to become a two-wheel drive for better turning. Another issue is the building's guest Wi-Fi blocked our wireless communication method forcing everything to be run locally on the Pi. Through this project our team had a fun time and learned many new design skills such as integrating Raspberry Pi control into existing motor systems. We learned about different search algorithms and how to employ them with our ultrasonic sensors. As well as all of us improved our Python skills while implementing code on the Pi for the controls, transmission, and encryption.