Inspiration
We wanted to create something that would be help people with both their mental and physical health. Hooper is designed to ensure that people are staying active while entertaining them at the same time! We hope that having Hooper in the workspace will help encourage positive conversations about mental and physical health.
What it does
Hooper detects people and gives them a ball to throw into it's can. It uses computer vision to detect people and approach them with the ball.
How we built it
We used Solidworks to design the robot from the ground up. In addition, we used an Arduino UNO for the controls. The robot includes three motors and one servo and employs OpenCV to perform the facial and ball recognition.
Challenges we ran into
We initially tried to use a Raspberry Pi, but it was really slow and we couldn't get the software we wanted on it. Also, the motors were not strong enough to move the robot, which caused some issues. Finally, the logic behind the wiring of the motors kept being weird due to a bunch of hardware issues with the provided relays.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Our robot can successfully search for a person nearby, go up to them, drop off a ball, and go back and open the lid. It's pretty fun.
What we learned
We learned a lot about logic behind motor controls and Arduino signals, as well as how to plan out and properly build a robot body.
What's next for Hooper
We want to develop a more permanent way of holding the phone on the robot. Who knows what the future may hold! Maybe you'll find him bring a ball to you in your office.
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