Team Rubik Final Project

From ENGR005_2009

This is the page for Team Rubik, a group for the E5 Final Project.

Contents 1 Team Members 2 Proposal 3 Details 3.1 Block Diagram 4 Timeline 5 Required Materials

Team Members

• Nick Felt
• Keliang He
• Becca Roelofs

Proposal

To build a small robot that can solve a Rubik's cube by scanning its faces, determining a sequence of moves to solve it, and rotating the faces accordingly.

Our motivation for this project is that we believe we can sell a Rubik's-cube solving robot to frustrated, lazy puzzle aficionados the world over, and make lots of money from the patents. Also, not all of us (*cough* Nick) have the time to bother solving the cube by hand like some people with nothing better to do (*cough* Keliang). Lastly, it will be a chance for us to demonstrate our epic programing and robot-building skillz.

Details

• We will probably use 4 servos - 2 to grip, 2 to rotate
• The programming will be in Matlab
• The two rotating servos will have gripping pincers attached to grab and release the cube
• Many components will need to be constructed from raw materials
• Visual recognition of the faces will use either a webcam with image parsing software, or a set of light sensors

Block Diagram

Timeline

1. Thursday 11/12 - Publish project idea and team members on wiki
2. Tuesday 11/17 - Finish complete project proposal on wiki including:
   • Motivation for project
   • Description of project including block diagram with major components (software and/or hardware)
   • Explicit time line for completion of tasks
   • Any equipment required
3. Friday 11/20 - All materials gathered (servo grip kits + webcam)
4. Saturday 11/21 - Assemble body of robot, start working on code
5. Wednesday 11/25 - Physical robot completed and functional, code can do basic movements
6. Sunday 11/29 - First draft of solving algorithm done, basic visual recognition done (e.g. color identification)
7. Wednesday 12/2 - Complete solving algorithm done, first draft of full visual recognition done, start testing
8. Saturday 12/5 - (Hopefully) robot is basically functional; continue testing and tweaking
9. Sunday 12/6 - Practice oral presentation for Professor Cheever (schedule TBD)
10. Tuesday 12/8 - Present project orally in class (schedule TBD)
11. Thursday 12/10 - Turn in project report on wiki

Required Materials

• Rubik's cube
• Servos
• Servo controller board
• Servo mounting hardware
• Grippers
• Webcam
• Base to support the servos and arms
• Laptop
• USB to serial converter