Building a Full Robot

Before designing a PCB for the robot, it was necessary to test all the prototype circuits when put together.  This was important, as if the circuits are not correct, it is much easier to fix at design stage than after it is set in copper on a PCB.  The completed prototype robot can be seen below.

Completed Prototype

Each group member constructed their own subsystem on a breadboard that fit the size of the robot.  The Arduino and Xbee was mounted towards the rear of the robot.  The complete robot was then tested with communications through a USB cable, and no issues were encountered.  The hit notification was tested by using another laser to trigger the sensor, and then Processing was monitored to see the notification packet come through.  These tests can be seen in the video below.


When testing through an Xbee radio link, the broadcasting delay issue discussed previously was encountered. This led to the redesign of the network.  Once implemented, the robot could be tested wirelessly as seen below.