Mobile Projectile Laucher



This is just an outlint sketch of the artillery project. To see the full report, click here.

Description

The basic idea here is to develop a mobile projectile laucher capable of tracking and targeting another object, and correctly adjusting the firing parameters in order to hit it. This is hard.


Engineering Concepts

In order to make the robot work, students will have to use all of these engineering concepts:
  1. Projectile Motion Equations
  2. Robotics
  3. Sensory Input/Control Systems
  4. Real-Time Programming
  5. Problem Solving
  6. Creativity

As stated above, this is an extremely difficult problem. It could be simplified by keeping the unit stationary.


Distance Measurement


One major aspect of the project is the ability of the machine to judge the distance to the target. This could be done many different ways. A simple sonar module could be adapted to use the Lego control stations. However, these "hobby" sonar sensors are usually quite unreliable. One could always resort to simple trigonametry, which would most likely require the robot to move (unless you're particularly clever).


Firing Mechanism


It turns out that the lauching mechanism is another complex problem. How does one go about creating such a device with Lego? This is something that will require a LOT of thought. It's not quite as trivial as it may seem.


Competition


Competition could easily be introduced into the project. Robots could fire at each other. The first to score a hit is declared the winner. If this is done, there must be some way to track the other robot. This will hopefully be possible by adapting the MIT infrared trasmitter/receiver pair to the Lego kits. If this is not possible, the competition could always be changed to firing at a stationary target, with the closest shot winning the contest.

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