Deere pls help us

Inspiration

Our inspiration was a typical motor grader which levels the sand easily.

What it does

At first we built a scraper which dragged all the sand but that would keep getting stuck in the sand. So we tried building ridges as our level grader but that did not work due to the height of the ridges.

How we built it

For the scraper we laser cut two planks of plywood and attached superglue + glue gun to the edges of the plank. After this got stuck by the sand we laser cut pieces of acrylic with ridges to move the sand aside, and repeat this multiple times until the sand leveled/flattened.

Challenges we ran into

The challenges we ran into were 3d designing the parts to the right dimension. Neither of us knew how to 3D model or design any parts so we didn't know how to make the right kind of blade, what material to use, how to use CAD, and most importantly how to attach the extra servos in a way it did not mess up the rest of the vehicle.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Using the SONAR to detect distance from the wall of the sandbox. We also adjusted the IR to be able to see people (essentially) to a distance of around 40cm. We were also originally able to replace the wheels with a wooden blade that moves using a TT motor instead of a servo.

What we learned

More than the software, the hardware design plays a lot more into it. It's relatively easy to make thing self moving using AI, public libraries, or even have the software to change according to your requirements, but with self driving movement, the boogie-woogie suspension, and the low power motors it was very tough to make the blade move well enough to level.