Electronics

Brett Foster · Guest

I'm designing a challenge for a contest run by CIS/CSC at University of
Guelph. It's a robotics challenge for high school students using stock
lego mindstorm kits (though this is irrelevent to the question). In an
effort to make the contest more interesting to the participants I'm
trying to make the challenges more intelegent/different.

So to that end, I'm seeking ideas to setup and track the robot within a
grid. The grid will be 8 by 8 (covering 4 feet by 4 feet or more) and
must be built in 2 by 2 sections. Each 2x2 section will function
indepdendent of other sections so that they can be given out to
experiment with. Here are some ideas we brainstormed:

- Hall Sensors - the robot would have a small magnet attached before the
competition.
- Light sensor - when robot hovers over the sensor one would expect the
sensor to show low-light conditions.
- Even the idea of picking up noise from the DC motor came up while
brainstorming.

Ideally the system should be able to determin if the robot is moving or
standing still, and should not interfere or require the robot to to be
built in a particular way, though requiring a magnet be attached, for
example, would be accpetable. The other consideration is cost -- To put
the budget in perspective, it will cover the cost of 16 small circuit
boards and would also cover the cost of hall sensors, and other required
components, based on prelim calculations. I.e. 2 by 2 - each cicuit
would monitor 4 sensors.

I'm looking for ideas, and feedback over the methods of how to
accomplish this.

Thanks,

Brett Foster

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