ME 384 Project Competion Winners
Group members:

Alptuğ Koca -Berat Beşel -Doruk Erdeğirmenci -Eyüp Ertuğrul Mola -Utku Büyükfidan -Yılmaz Yiğit Ünveren

During ME 384 class, groups were tasked with designing and producing a robotic system that can pass through 2 gaps of proportional length to the dimensions of the robot and do it by a distinctive system that activates after a sensory process. This year, ME 384 projects were subjected a competition for 4 awards to compare the design & production abilities of each group, namely: the fastest system, largest gap passing mechanism, most innovative design and the first to produce a working system(Early Bird) awards. By being the only operational system that entered and succesfully demonstrated its function in May 17, PICachu won the Early Bird award. PICachu group focused on further developing our robot to the fastest running system that it is until June 11, which lead them to obtain the respective fastest system award. Their system consists of a main chasis drived with tank tracks and a rod-support mechanism that are operated via a conveyor belt mechanism. Both the support system and the driving tracks are run by 2 DC motors that are installed with reducting gear systems for optimum torque and rpm output. The operational brain of the robot is a microcontroller that is tasked with interpreting the signal from the sonar distance sensor and activating the support mechanism. The whole system is designed to be autonomous, including deactivation at the end of the duty cycle. Usage of lightweight rod-conveyor belt support system, reductor gearboxes and installing of the circuit on the PCB board allowed us to become the fastest system in the competition.

Following video further emphasizes on the know-how of the system in more detail:

https://youtu.be/vILd-iUUQzU