The Foosbot prototype has been completed. We have been very busy and I haven't had time to update the blog. Let me run you through the last few weeks of Foosbot's life!
We presented Foosbot on senior design presentation day on Friday, April 13th. The project worked well and was well received by the audience and faculty. Joe, Bryan, and Ahmed stayed up in the lab until 6:30AM to finish the PWM (pulse-width-modulated) signal generating circuit to drive the stepper motors. This upgrade along with the replacement of the steel foosmen rods with hollow aluminum rods greatly increased the response of our kicking motors.
Shortly after senior design presentations, the team took Foosbot apart and readied all the hardware for travel to San Mateo, California to compete in the RoboGames, the worlds largest robotics competition. There are multiple categories and the admittance to compete is unrestricted in terms of age and occupation. There were companies and teams that designed robots from all over the world including Japan, Taiwan, Sweden, Brazil, Canada, Turkey, USA, and more. The category we competed in is called "Best of Show". In this category, all robots present at the competition are in contest, whether be it an art (music) robot, combat bot of any weight class, soccer bots, fighting robots, assistance robots, etc. Because of the broad admittance in the competition, there were many interesting and valiant projects.
Among these projects is one made by a corporate robotics firm from Japan. Their project won 1st prize in the "Best of Show" competition for being a fighting robot that is controlled through a motion-sensing camera. The project worked flawlessly to emulate what it's human counterpart acted out on camera.
Second place went to a team of electrical and computer engineers from Turkey. Their project was a robotic arm with finger functionality. The unique component about their arm is that it is controlled solely by cognitive signals of the wearer. They are able to lift, rotate, and grab objects with this arm without any input from the user other than his mind!
We are very happy and humble to have taken 3rd place in the "Best of Show" competition with Foosbot. Though the project is a prototype, we are most pleased with the robustness of the overall design. Kids were lined up to play against Foosbot for the entire duration of the three-day competition and everyone that saw it in action crowded around in intrigue. It was humbling to see our senior design project so well received. The most common question posed to us during the competition was "How does it see the ball?!"
Speaking of questions, Team Foosbot was interviewed briefly by NBC and later by Wired Magazine. Also, the University of Akron is in the process of writing an article about our success in the Buchtelite and/or the online newsletter. We are happy that there was so much interest in our senior design project.
The College of Engineering at Akron will host a "Senior Design Expo" on April 26th, 2012 from 11am to 1pm. We encourage everyone that follows us to attend this event! Come see the other teams that also competed at RoboGames and the rest of the great projects that came out this year.
