Trash Bot team 20

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  trash

Inspiration Our team was sitting and discussing what our possible projects may be. We had trash at our table but the trash can was too far away. if we could have the trash can come towards you instead of going to it, it would make the world a truly better place. Thus we decided to make a trash can robot that can navigate its way towards the user.

What it does: It is capable of sensing a trigger condition in a closed room, and receive position values based on which button was being pressed. then it will navigate through the room regardless of the obstacles to reach the user and wait for them to throw away the trash before navigating back to its initial position.

How we built it: we used an Arduino to control a motor shield and IR proximity sensors in order to navigate through the room. The robot has an algorithm it uses the chassis and the demo garbage can are made of custom foam parts. A Raspberry Pi was used to send signals relaying the position of the user to the robot through Bluetooth. The robot has to simultaneously have the user's position in mind while navigating through obstacles.

Challenges we ran into: Bluetooth system did not work. Difficulties with the IR proximity sensors did not allow the robot to efficiently navigate through obstacles. Battery supply fluctuation meant that the robot turning is not accurate.

Accomplishments that we're proud of: successfully created the hardware portion for the robot. Made the Arduino code for the robot work with little success.

What we learned: Bluetooth is hard. Often real life conditions will make the sensor readings flawed.

What's next for Trash Bot: to actually work

Built With

• arduino
• blood-sweat-and-tears
• foam
• raspberry-pi