ASEE Robot Design Competition

The ASEE (American Society for Engineering Education) is hosting a robot design competition on June 27, 2016, in New Orleans, LA. The competition is for first and second year undergraduate students.

See the Official Rules posted on the | ASEE Model Design Competition 2016 page.

This year's competition, "Robot Parade" (NOLA, get it?), gives robots four trials of 90 seconds each to deposit rings into boxes along a route inside of a maze.

Getting started

• Locomotion
  • Differential drive
    • A common and popular way drive technique
    • Pros: Turns on a dime
    • Cons: Has to drag some kind of caster, can be difficult to drive straight
  • Ackerman steering
    • The way a car moves
    • Pros: Only one drive motor
    • Cons: Finite turning radius, needs a rear axle differential gear
  • Mechanum wheels
    • Wheels with wheels on them
    • Pros: can move in any direction
    • Cons: expensive, complicated
  • Tank treads
    • Differential drive with a twist
    • Pros: Can go over obstacles, can support the most load
    • Cons: Turning no so great, might need suspension, complicated or expensive to build
  • Static walking
    • 4, 6, or more legs!
    • Pros: Um... cool looking?
    • Cons: Needs lots of motors, complicated programming to make infinitely adjustable steps
  • Dynamic walking
    • 1 or 2 legs
    • Pros: nah
    • Cons: Impossible

• Sensing
  • Optical
    • interrupter
    • reflector
    • proximity
    • laser
  • Position
    • accelerometer
    • gyro
    • IMU
    • encoder
    • angle
    • distance
    • Flex
  • Force
    • FSR
    • Load cell
  • Contact
    • push button
    • limit switch
  • Magnetic
    • reed switch
    • magnetometer

• Manipulation
  • Rotational motors
    • DC motor
    • DC motor with gearhead
    • DC motor with gearhead and encoder
    • stepper motor
    • brushless
    • RC servo
  • Linear motors
    • Lead screw and DC motor
    • stepper motor with lead screw
    • solenoid