Final Pin Picker Upper Robot Report.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/az5xui715w0932m/Pin%20Picker%20Upper%20Robot%20final%20report.doc

4/16/2014

   This week I got the metal detector circuit to trigger the electro-magnet then the servo turns the arm and then deactivates the electro-magnet and the servo goes back in to the start position. This completes my pin picking up sequence. Next week I have to rewire everything so that it is in parallel with the battery pack so that there will be enough current to run everything at the same time.

4/9/2014

   This week I was able to get the metal detector circuit to work and wrote the code that will interrupt the drive function when anything metal is detected. When something metal is detected the robot will stop at this point, and next week I will work on the rest of the sequence of turning on the elector magnet and actuating the servo.

3/26/2014

   This week was a very good week! I finally found a library that works with the I^2C LDC I got so it is now fully functional and displaying the distance measurements from my sonic detector and printing the danger warning. I also got the metal touch sensor working and now I'm working on the code for it. In the following week I hope to write the function code, and the activation of the pick up arm.

3/19/2014

   This week feels like one of the least productive weeks so fare. I was working on getting the LCD working and was hoping to be done early in the week, but at this point I still haven't been able to find a library that works with it. I have asked a few other students for advice, and they've all been very willing to help, but no one has the same one as I do so I haven't been able to apply the procedures to get mine to work. I did take some time off from working on the LCD and try and work with the metal detector circuit only to find out with some in depth research that the circuit I bought is more of a touch sensor that metal objects will have to come in contact with to activate. I don't have it fully functional yet because there is not much information on this specific technology online right now, so I plan on developing my own research though some trial and error, in the up coming week.

3/12/2014

  This week I perfected my collision avoidance, but now I am having some trouble getting my LCD screen to printout. It's the I2C that is supposed to be making things easier that is giving me trouble. I'm sure I will like it once I get it going but right now it is tough, there is a step in setting it up where I have to scan my Arduino to find the I2C device but it isn't able to find anything. I'm hoping to get this out of the way in the next week and get started on the metal detection.

3/5/2014

   This week I got the collision avoidance to work, but there are still a few bugs to workout. The robot drives forward and when it comes across an obstacle it turns, but it turns farther than it needs to so it ends up going in a random direction. I finally received the LCD display so I plan on getting that hooked up in the coming week and hope that it will make tweaking the collision avoidance.