PickerBot- Flipkart Hack Day 2012

"Johnny Sokko And His Flying Robot" Does it ring a bell? It was my favorite program back in school. I am always fascinated by robots , especially the small ones which can be used as utility bots.

 This time at Flipkart Hack Day 2012 we planned to build a bot to serve similar purpose. The idea struck me as I saw an arduino based implementation of bitbeambot http://bitbeam.org/bitbeambot
"Robots that can play angry birds" thats awesome. Our idea was to build a bot that can pick items from one point lets say picking point and deliver to a particular shelf in warehouse.This bot can be used to organise products in warehouses to reduce manual efforts and minimise errors. The elongated plan was to build robotic arms which will pick items,scan and drop it on the Picker Bot.The PickerBot will deliver it to particular location. The PickerBot will be smart to avoid obstacles on the way with the help of sharp IR sensors.PickerBot will be assigned a wireless radios for real time monitoring solutions.Finaly equipped with a barcode reader it will be able to identify the deliverables.In the delivery shelf we will have another robotic arm to pick up the product and arrange it on the shelf. Sounds cool already...

Well I had two alternate plans as well for the bot.

If(success){
 The bot can be used to deliver snacks from the kitchen while I am on a difficult mission on my PS3.
}else {
 The non functional bot will be a toy for my newborn daughter.
}


This was my first hardware hack and I was already nervous about the fate of our robot.We soon realised that the motor drivers were not working as desired means we have to hack their need too.We connected the motors directly to arduino but then realise that the arduino out will not deliver sufficient Volts to power both the motors. Time was running out as it was 24 hrs event and it was already 6pm. We have nimble chance to buy another Motor driver and even if we purchase there is no guarantee that it will work as desired. The confusion was that we probably won't be able to stop the bot without the motor driver. We then connected the arduino to the motors and scripted the Motor controlling functions on arduino.The arduino board was connected directly to   the Motors and was able control the Motors. Victory !!! however small it was, it raised our hopes a little.
   

Few minutes later, we started assembling the parts of the bot. We connected the small motors with wheels and a caster wheel at the front to support and turn the bot left and right.We connected the breadboard, arduino board , connected the batteries and started testing it. The bot moved but was very slow.The second problem with the bot was that one motor moves slower than the other and the bot turns in circles than moving in a straight line.9pm it was , Dinner time.

Post dinner we connected the large DC Motors and large Wheels so that given more power the bot will move faster.To fancy us the bot didn't moved at all.:( The DC Motors were heavy and wheels had better grips in addition to that the carpeted floor were not helping.Our hope sank again.

Post midnight, The rolls arrived.After a short break we planned to add more batteries and the attach the lighter wheels on the front.Once we powered up the bot again the bot started rolling on  the floors. This also subsided the moving in the circle problem.3 am,  we were quite happy by this time so much so that to celebrate our victory we added LEDs to celebrate.

Finally, connected the servo motor and attached the IR sensors and our PickerBot was ready for Demo.