VEX Robotics Class Project
For my first Robotics Engineering class, my team was tasked with making a robot using the VEX Robotics platform that could autonomously pick "fruits" off of orchard "trees".
Project Summary
I worked with a team of two other undergraduate Robotics Engineering students to create a VEX robot that could pull 3D-printed cylinders, called "fruits", off of "branches" from a tree. The mechanical design of the robot and its code were left completely up to us, meaning we had to find unique ways to solve the challenge of grabbing and delivering the fruits.
Our robot was programmed in Python and took advantage of the VEX vision sensor for computer vision and color sensing, as well as simpler components such as reflectance sensors, ultrasonic distance sensors, and more. Through the use of these sensors, our robot was able to remain on track even without knowing where on the table it was.
Skills & Tools
- Computer vision
- Python
- Autonomous sensing
- Project management
Design & Code
These photos show a close-up angle of the end effector, the map of the field we were tasked with navigating, and a snippet of our code.
Future Improvements
- More "snappy" movements for quicker field navigation
- Improved calibration for color codes used in fruit-picking
- Adding a button to manually interrupt the robot's autonomy for situation-specific navigation corrections