Inspiration
We drew inspiration from recognizing the laziness of people when they are sitting at their desks yet they wish to throw away their garbage. Hence, to solve this problem, we decided to have a robot that can shoot garbage to the trash bin without the need to get up.
What it does
It transforms garbage throwing into a game. You can control the robot with a joystick, moving it forward and backwards, and side-to-side, and turning it left and right. After you decided on the position you wish for the robot to shoot, you can toggle to the arm by pressing the joystick, allowing you to change the angle at which the garbage is aimed at. You are able to toggle back and forth. When you are satisfied with the position, you can launch the garbage by pulling the elastic band, which will cause an impact with the garbage, sending it to your desired location.
How we built it
We built it using C/C++ with two Arduino Uno and two NRF24L01 so it could have a wireless connection between the joystick controller and the robot itself. We have also connected the motors to the motor driver, allowing the motor to actually spin.
Challenges we ran into
A major challenge we ran into was transmitting values from one NRF24L01 to the other. We kept on receiving "0"s as the output in the receiver, which was not what the receiver should be receiving.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are proud of creating a project using C/C++ and Arduino as it was our first time working with these programming languages.
What we learned
We learned how to use C/C++ and Arduino in a professional setting. We had no/little prior experience when it comes to coding in Arduino. Yet, during the entire hackathon, not only did we learn how to write codes in Arduino, we also learned how to connect the wires on the hardwires, allowing the robot to actually run.
What's next for Garbage Shooter
The next steps for Garbage Shooter is to have a shooting mechanism where the user would have to control how much they want to stretch the rubber band through a joystick instead of manually launching the garbage.
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