Inspiration
Innovation in the gaming industry has powerful implications as it is a multi-billion dollar industry. We were inspired by the desire to create a gaming environment in everyday settings such as one's house.
What it does
The Kit Katapult is a game bot in which the user can control and see through the vision of his robot using an Oculus Rift. The user may also control the robot's motion and the loading/shooting of Kit Kats (or other friendly trajectories) through an XBox controller. Post pictures of "victims" to Kit Katapult's facebook page.
How we built it
The robot itself is constructed with Vex Robotics parts. Its main components are the base (motion), the shooting mechanism, the magazine/cartridge contraption, and the mounted vision system.
The Kit Katapult has a unique range of motion such that it can strafe in any direction due to its omni wheels placed at 45 degree angles. There are four motors controlling movement, six motors controlling loading/shooting of trajectories, and two motors controlling visual scope. Each motor is controlled by one of the three Arduino/Adafruit MotorShields and powered by one of the three batteries.
The shooting mechanism utilizes nautilus gears and elastic bands. The unique, increasing-radius shape of the gears creates tension in the bands that will release the Kit Kats.
There are two cameras mounted atop the Kit Katapult on two axes of rotation to allow for both horizontal and vertical movement.
Software
The Kit Katapult has three main components. The lowest level in terms of software abstraction, is that of a cpp program that governs movement of the motors. On top of that is a perception module, also in cpp, which interacts with a server on azure. The azure-flask server is the keystone in this arc de triumph because it relays the positional tracking information from the oculus rift to the robot's onboard computer via the aforementioned perception module.
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