Robockey, a game of 3-vs-3 autonomous hockey-playing robots, has become a rite of passage in the Mechatronics class at the University of Pennsylvania. As a 3 week culmination project, with just enough rounds of electrical, mechanical and software iterations, 3 fully working robots were ready to enter the "ice" rink and face our opponents. We designed our robots “a la puff”: with ingenuity and style. Because our robots were born in a puff [a short, explosive burst of breath].

DESIGN APPROACH

We endeavored to build modular robots, so that we could work on different components separately and iteratively. 

Equipped with an Atmega based microcontroller, an IR sensing array of phototransistors strategically located around the robots circumference, and modular electrical organs, our 3 bots huffed and puffed bravely. 

COMPONENTS:

Microcontroller:  the brains of our robots, in charge of receiving commands via mRF from a base controller (transmitting gameplay commands), inter-robot communication, localization, state logic, data filtering, among others.

IR Sensors and Pot Board: We had phototransistors

STRATEGY

The first two robots were defensive, focusing on accuracy and strength over speed. They focused on blocking the opponent. The last robot was lightweight and speedy to focus on goal scoring.

CHALLENGES

One of the most difficult aspects of this project was localization. Equipped with a Wii mote IR camera, each robot had to be able to exactly locate where they were positioned in the ice rink, and which way they were oriented (e.g. facing goal A vs goal B).