Leona

Since I did not know anything about robotics before this project, I needed to acquire coding skills. I did this by attending Python courses. I also learned how to use Arduino and did a bit coding with it, since it is a crucial component in controlling the robot.

My initial design was quite different from my final outcome. It was my initial idea to cover all the wires and components, and the robot was designed to be around 1.5m tall. I first used a illustrator to imitate the design. For the final outcome, I laser cut black acrylic boards and used them for the outer shell of the robot, considering their density and appearance. I also acquired CAD skills to design some special components and 3D printed them to fit the robot.

My partner did most of the software part of the robot. We used openCV on Python to detect human faces and follow it. After the code was mostly finished, I made a small robot to test the code. This was a robot that only had the electric components and a board made of wood.

My work was mainly the hardware part of the robot, and problems did come up frequently.. Since the height of the robot, the centre of mass of the robot was relatively high. Therefore, there was a great chance for the robot to tilt when its acceleration was high. There could also be risks of falling. To solve this problem, I put all the electric components on the bottom of the robot. Also, the thickness of the shell of the bottom part of the robot was increased. The robot does not tilt as much now. Another major problem occurred on the motors and the wheels for not being powerful enough. They were then changed.

The main adjustments I did on the code was the speed and angle changes when the robot was on. The tilt of the robot was reduced after changing the speed of the robot on Python.