🌟 Inspiration
Hackathon participants often face several challenges when accessing snacks and meals. They may have to leave their belongings unattended, wait in long lines, locate the snack distribution points, adapt to changing snack locations, make multiple trips for sufficient snacks, and navigate long distances within the venue, all while losing valuable coding time.
For participants with accessibility needs, these challenges are further amplified, making hackathons less inclusive. Issues include mobility impairments, social anxiety, dietary restrictions, claustrophobia, directional challenges, and visual, auditory, or cognitive impairments.
🚀 What it does
Our project introduces an autonomous robot that delivers snacks directly to participants, eliminating the need for them to leave their workstations. The robot is controlled through a web app where participants can log in, view available snack options, and place orders. The app also caters to dietary restrictions/preferences noted during the hackathon application process.
🛠️ How we built it
The robot is designed to be as simple as possible allow for hackthons to replicate this idea in the future improving accessibility for all participants. Our main hardware stack consists of a Raspberry Pi , DC motors and our rover chassis. The rover itself is connected to the cloud using AWS Iot Core removing the dependency of being on the same network allowing it to be controller remotely. Our webapp uses this to provide a seamless experience of controlling and using the rover .
🤔 Challenges we ran into
We faced several challenges, including ensuring the robot could operate in a crowded environment, and developing a user-friendly web app that catered to all dietary and accessibility needs. Additionally, we had to consider the limitations of the hardware provided by the hackathon organizers.
🏆 Accomplishments that we're proud of
We successfully developed a semi-autonomous robot that could deliver snacks to participants, judges, sponsors, and organizers. The web app allowed users to place orders seamlessly, and the robot navigated the venue efficiently. We also implemented features like real-time tracking, dietary preference settings, and interactive onboarding.
🧠 What we learned
Through this project, we gained valuable insights into combining hardware and software to solve real-world problems. We learned how to integrate accessibility features, develop a user-friendly web app, and navigate the challenges of operating an autonomous robot in a dynamic environment.
🔮 What's next for our Autonomous Snack Delivery Robot
In the future, we aim to refine and expand our project. This includes enhancing the robot's navigation capabilities, improving the web app's functionality, and integrating more advanced features like AI-driven dietary recommendations and multi-floor navigation. We also plan to gather user feedback during hackathons to continually improve the robot's performance and usability.
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