Design Competition 2014

​

During the 2013-2014 schoolyear, I participated in Northwestern's annual McCormick Autonomous Robot Design Competition. 

 

The challege for this year was to design and build an autonomous robot that did not use wheels to accomplish a series of tasks. The tasks were competing in a simple race, navigating a maze and collecting ping-pong balls while avoiding obstacles. 

 

My teammate and I created the robot shown on the left. This robot was created using laser-cut linkages, servo and DC motors, and an Arduino Uno board. 

 

We used Klann linkages to create the walking motion of our robot and built everything from scratch. Our design aesthetic was inspired by Theo Jansen's strandbeests. 

 

The hand on the robot was coated in a sticky material to facilitate ping-pong ball pickup. 

 

While we did not place in the competition, our robot did pose a challenge to others and we plan to participate again next year. 

 

Click here to see a video of the robot walking.