Pi Wars 2020 PiAPC

Blog 3 I have built a prototype for a tank-based robot which I am going to test out:  It was made from spare parts which included foamboard, Raspberry Pi 3B+, L298N motor controller, battery pack, an aluminum tank chassis and two 300rpm dc motors. I controlled it over SSH via my laptop however I hope to soon control it via a PS4 controller or something similar to that.  I decided that I would make both a tracked tank robot as well as a 4wd robot and compare them both to see which one I prefer. The robot that I do not choose will be used as a backup as it will be useful if anything bad happens to my primary robot (ie big mechanical failures). Next, I will build my 4wd robot using the ThunderBorg motor controller. Currently, I believe that the 4wd robot will be more useful this year in the challenges and one major drawback of using this tank is that the tracks are very fiddly and are hard to get right.  I have still have a long time until Pi Wars 2020, but I assum

Motor Test This doesn't really count as a full blog post, but this is a video of a motor test that I conducted: As you can see from this video the motors function very well and should work well on the robot!

Blog 2 The motors and the wheels have shipped, however, there is a big problem. The current width of our robot is 300mm but it has to be at a maximum of 225mm as stated in the rules of the competition. Possible ways of adjustments could include, but are not limited to, getting smaller motors, getting smaller wheels, removing gearbox off the motor (but I would rather not do this) or make a slightly complicated gear system that was recommended to me by a friend. The current motors I have run at about 450 rpm and have a lot of torque, so I like them a lot and would prefer not to change them. The wheels are also great and have a large amount of grip, perfect for the obstacle course.  An image of my motors and wheels Some basic code has already been written and has been tested. I am using the L298n dual H-bridge DC stepper motor controller as my motor controller right now during this 'test' stage of my robot. 

Blog 1 A quick update - if all goes to plan, most of the major parts for my chassis will arrive in a week's time. I am exploring the idea of making a tank based robot, however, I will do some tests and make many prototypes to see what type of robot better suits the challenges this year. While waiting for the various parts to arrive, I am going to start on the coding! I will probably be uploading all my work to GitHub and I will post a link to that as soon as possible. Right now I think that the challenge that requires the most thought is going to be 'The Zombie Apocalypse' .  The challenge is described as the following on the Pi Wars website: "Shoot all the zombies in the Tower and save the inhabitants. The targets will be at a number of different levels and you must use projectiles as your “anti-zombie device” to knock them over." My first idea for this challenge was to develop a mechanism using a push and pull solenoid, as well as  neodymium magnets and

I just got accepted for Pi Wars 2020! To begin with, I will begin to start by making a moving chassis.