Ground robot design and realization was a semester project of Mechanical Design Theory. Students were asked to build their own robots (no wheels allowed) to pass 3 predetermined stages as shown in Fig. 1. Stage A was a rectangular tunnel, stage B was a little hill, and stage C was a pair of cylindrical rods. Weight, successful rounds, total mileage, and time consumed were all performance indices taken into scoring.
Fig. 1 Racing field of ground robots
Other than CAD software lecturing, a demonstration of simple forward/reverse driving control (see Fig. 2) of DC motor and step motor was given in order to give more fundamental tools for project students.
Fig. 2 Simple motor control modules
To remotely operate the ground robots, wireless control kits like IR and RF control modules were also introduced (see Fig. 3).
Fig. 3 Simple wireless control modules
There were 14 groups competing with on another. Mov. 1~4 were selected footage of the semester competition. Few months later this competition went on campus level during the spring break, winning Department of Mechanical Engineering the Principal Award of annual school festival.
Mov. 3 Racing footage of Group 5/14 Mov. 4 Racing footage of Group 6/14
Mov. 1 Racing footage of Group 1/14 Mov. 2 Racing footage of Group 4/14
