The document summarizes the team and plans for a Wall-E robot to compete in the Mercury Robot Competition. The 11-member team is split into bot, control, and wiki teams. The Wall-E bot will be remotely controlled to navigate an obstacle course. The control system involves an Xbox controller, control laptop, and wireless node to send commands. The bot will use a 3-state control algorithm to receive and validate commands.

1. Team: Wall-E
Image from: http://www.pixar.com/featurefilms/walle/images/walle-front.jpg
An ENSC 3213 Production

2. Team Members Name: Team Role
Tim Van Ostran Team Leader
Kory Teague Lead Engineer
Kelle McCan Wiki Specialist
Carly Butters Team Liaison
Park Lamerton Bot Team Lead
Dylan Kuehni Bot Team
Jason Semien Bot Team
Ethan Abele Bot Team
Ryan Syrus Bot Team
Nik Marinov Control Team Lead
Dustin Maki Control Team
Mike Krueger Control Team
Steven Belcher Control Team

3.  Mercury Robot Competition
 Wall-E Bot
 Control Implementation
Bot Implementation
Image from: http://code.google.com/p/plpbot/wiki/Portal?tm=6

 Questions?
Outline Image from: http://mercury.okstate.edu/2011.html

4. The
Challenge
• Operating robots remotely have many useful applications.
This challenge will explore possible means of accomplishing
this task. The challenge is to design, build, and operate a
complete system capable of navigating an obstacle course
with the operator and the robot separated by a great
distance.
Objectives
• Control the robot manually from a remote location.
• Navigate a course in minimum time while avoiding obstacles
Information found: http://mercury.okstate.edu/flyer-2011.pdf
Mercury Robot Competition

5.  Open to university and high school
teams. Category will be determined by the most
senior member of the team (excluding the
mentor or instructor).
 Teams will consist of at most four team members
plus an optional mentor or instructor.
 The robot must be guided by the actions of an
Operator at a remote location.
 One team member will be designated the
“Operator” and is the only one that is allowed to
guide the robot.
 The Operator may only receive information
provided by the robot.
2012 Competition Rules

6.  The remaining team members may be located at the
robot site and will be the only ones that may touch
the robot during or between runs.
 Touching the robot during the run will result in a time
penalty or possible disqualification of the current run.
 Striking and/or knocking over obstacles will carry
time penalties. The actual penalty points will be
declared prior to the start of the event.
 The robot must follow a predefined path from “Start”
to “Finish” in minimum time while attempting to avoid
striking obstacles.
 Each team will have a 15 minute window in which to
attempt to traverse the obstacle course.
2012 Competition Rules Cont.

7.  When the final run is started, it must be
completed before the 15 minute window
expires to count as an “official time”.
 The team may make as many attempt as the
15 minute window will allow.
 The best score will be considered the “official
time”.
 The team whose robot completes the course
in the minimum time will be the winner.
 In the event of a tie, the team with the least
penalty points will be deemed the winner.
2012 Competition Rules Cont.

8. The Maze
Image from: http://mercury.okstate.edu/2012%20track.jpg

9. Image from: http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs37/i/2008/248/6/b/Wall_E_and_EVE_Icons_by_Flarup.jpg
Wall-E Bot

10. Send
Send controls
controls to
to satellite.
Bot.
Image from: http://customxbox360controllers.org/wp-
Image from: http://mercury.okstate.edu/2011.html
content/uploads/xbox360_controller-1.jpg
Wall-E’s Configuration

11. Image from: http://images.wikia.com/disneyvillains/images/b/b2/AUTO.jpg
Image from: http://customxbox360controllers.org/wp-content/uploads/xbox360_controller-1.jpg
Control Implementation

12. 1. Analog Controller sends control signals for the WALL-E
bot to a computer through a USB port.
2. Control Laptop reads controller input, normalizes it,
translates it to WALL-E understandable signals.
3. Control Laptop sends control packets from controller,
as long as it receives WALL-E “heartbeat”, through a
virtual COM port.

13. 4. Wireless Control Node sends/receives virtual COM port
messages between the Control FPGA and Control Laptop.
5. Control FPGA relays messages between WALL-
E and the Wireless Control Node.

14. Image from: http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_la76bvIGTP1qdce8vo1_400.png
Bot Image from: http://mercury.okstate.edu/2011.html
Implementation

15. • Receive 3 bits of data from the controller team.
• Once received, continue to State 2.
State1:
• Check to see if data is valid.
• If not, shut down.
State2: • If valid continue to State 3.
• Sort data by order they were received and give feedback
to controller.
State3: • Return to State 1.

16. Image from: http://www.wall-e-wallpaper.com/p7ssm_img_1/fullsize/Wall-e-wallpaper20_fs.jpg
Questions?