From CAD to Reality: Refining Our 3D-Printed Chassis for Pi Wars Glory Following the completion of our CAD design, we’ve taken the exciting step of 3D printing our new chassis design for the Pi Wars robot. This phase brought our digital blueprints to life, allowing us to conduct a test assembly that was both revealing and invaluable. While the initial assembly showed promising results, we identified several areas needing refinement to ensure our robot is battle-ready.
Powering Innovation - The PCB Behind Our Pi Wars Robot A Foundation for the Future In our quest to dominate Pi Wars, the heart of our robot’s prowess lies in a meticulously designed Printed Circuit Board (PCB), conceived and realized by our very own Robert K. This PCB is not just a circuit; it’s the central nervous system of our entry, embodying innovation, resilience, and adaptability.
Design Specification Power: 3S battery system with XT30 connectors and a barrel jack, featuring over-voltage, under-voltage, and over-current protection via eFuses.
Layer by Layer: Assembling Victory with Our 3D-Printed Pi Wars Gladiator The Journey to the Final Design In our quest to build a formidable contender for Pi Wars 2024, we’ve reached a significant milestone: the completion of the CAD design for our robot’s “final” base. This design represents not just the culmination of our efforts thus far but also a blueprint for the exciting steps ahead.
Initially, we envisioned a chassis that doubled as a PCB.
Uncommon Ground: The Shared Ingenuity of OSoD and the Latest in Mobility and Robotics In the realm of robotics and automotive innovation, a silent revolution brews, one that is as understated as it is radical. At the heart of this revolution lie the Overwhelming Surplus of Diggity (OSoD) – a marvel in the Pi Wars robotics competition – and its three contemporaries: the Hyundai Mobion, Mercedes EQG, and Hiwonder JetRover. What stitches these diverse entities together is their embrace of an ethos that defies convention.
Unveiling the Mathematics Behind Independent Four-Wheel Drive with “Virtual” Ackermann Steering In our journey to harness the full potential of Overwhelming Surplus of Diggity (OSoD), we delve into the intricate world of mathematics that underpins our innovative approach. Whether we’re commanding OSoD in skid steering mode or leveraging its unique “virtual” Ackermann steering, the foundation lies in calculating the wheel speeds and steering angles using a concept known as “inverse kinematics.
Odometry Matters In the journey towards Pi Wars 2024, we recently achieved a significant milestone that might sound deceptively simple but holds immense importance: we synchronized our wheel speeds with steering angles for the first time. While it happened relatively late in the build process (we embarked on this project back in 2021), grasping the significance of this achievement requires us to revisit the lessons learned from our past robot, Tauradigm
The Robotics Revolution: Pimoroni’s Yukon vs. Our Custom PCB In the evolving world of robotics, the choice between modular platforms and custom-built solutions is a pivotal decision for teams. Pimoroni’s recent release of the Yukon, a RP2040 based board, has sparked interest among robotics enthusiasts, including our team. Here’s a closer look at how Yukon stacks up against our custom PCB designed for the Pi Wars robot.
The Core of Innovation: Pimoroni’s Yukon Pimoroni’s Yukon emerges as a high-power modular robotics platform, built around the versatile RP2040 chip.
First Test Drive with Mecanum Wheels Mecanum Mastery: The Start of Omnidirectional Movement Our latest test drive marked a major step forward in our Pi Wars journey—the debut of our robot’s mecanum wheels, driven by our custom mixing code. This first foray into omnidirectional movement was exciting, though it highlighted some areas needing refinement.
Traction and Balance: Challenges Encountered During the test, we noticed a disparity in traction between two diagonal sets of wheels.
Unraveling the Zombie Apocalypse: A Mathematical Approach to Pi Wars Strategy In the world of Pi Wars, the Zombie Apocalypse challenge stands out not only for its thematic allure but also for the strategic depth it offers to participants. Recently, an intriguing aspect of this challenge caught our attention—the scoring system. Through a detailed mathematical analysis, we’ve uncovered insights that could significantly influence strategy, particularly concerning the distribution of targets across the “Pi Wars Tower.
Navigating the Circuit: From Blueprint to Reality in Our Robot’s Software Architecture In the dynamic world of robotics, the journey from a meticulously crafted plan to its practical implementation is often as fascinating as the challenges the robot is designed to overcome. As Team Cyberwar gears up for Pi Wars 2024, our ambition to showcase the prowess of full autonomy in robotics has led us to chart out an intricate software architecture blueprint.
