Lego EV3 robot for mapping out the perimeter and area of a room autonomously
The RenoBot was designed to aid humans in construction and renovation. Its primary function is to autonomously move around a space and calculate its area and perimeter. Additionally, the RenoBot will return information regarding the amount of material needed for that space. Finally, the RenoBot can also measure a specific angle, and then draw it out on paper. These functions can all be called by the main menu, which is a navigable interface made for the user to interact with the robot. This main menu is how the robot is started and shut down, and once a function is called the robot moves autonomously until it has completed a task, and returns to the main menu.
The criteria and constraints of this project focus on both the mechanical and software side of the robot. They drove the design of the robot by setting a requirement on size, degree of accuracy, and autonomy.
The mechanical design of the robot was built entirely from Lego Mindstorms EV3 kit parts. The main sub-assemblies involved in the RenoBot’s design are the chassis, the motor drive mechanism, the touch sensor/bumper, and the pencil actuator. Major considerations that were addressed while designing the robot were the EV3 brick placement, the ultrasonic sensor placement, and the IR sensor placement. The overall assembly of the RenoBot was executed with its dimensions and functionality in mind. As a result, RenoBot was built with a considerable degree of excellence in its functionality, user interface, and overall design.
The main menu contains all the functions of the RenoBot. The menu allows the user to cycle through all the function options. It uses functions such as getButtonValue and mainMenuScreen to make it possible to navigate the different areas of the menu.
The main functions of the robot are called through the user interface, they call a number of subfunctions responsible for basic functionality. For example, subfunctions such as drive_dist, and rotate were called numerous times in all main functions. Careful consideration was given to the timing of functions and the logic behind all calculations.
The Renobot was verified based on the stated criteria and constraints. Based on these, it performed excellently in the demo. Apart from one small autonomy issue, which was a result of provided hardware, everything worked to plan.