Robo Wrangler

This semester I'm taking an Intro to Engineering class. What it's trying to do is open up the engineering field and getting people interested in it. We're building a robot. As one of the heads of the computer department, I have to set up a wireless connection to the robot.

Along with that, we have to get the robot controller working, connected, and then programmed. For starters, we had to get the power problems out of the way. A 12V battery is hooked up to a power distribution board. That's where all the other components will be connected to as well. After that, the Robot Controller, which is a small black box, is connected to the power distribution board.

I don't have a wireless connection to it yet, so I have to connect it using an Ethernet cable, which gives the controller an internet connection. After that, it's hooked up to my computer with a USB cable. All of this enables me to program commands into the controller.

Once all the programming is done, it's as easy as playing a video game. I have an Xbox controller, so it's as simple as pressing buttons to make this robot go.

Now, what does the robot do? It throws yoga balls using a catapult. We're going to make it go through a goal, but I've been trying to convince Mr. Tripp to let me chuck it at the Freshmen. He says we can't, but deep down I know he wants to.

This project is really important to me. I get to work as a team with a bunch of different people to make this thing. It's something I never though I would be able to do, but this class is showing me what a team of motivated people can do. I'm loving every minute of it.

Here's a video of a robot from a competition that takes place every year. Our robot is similar, but it won't look exactly like this.