DILIGENCE-BOT

Inspiration

A PERSON VERY SPECIAL, BUT NOT ELON MUSK XD, ALSO THE CURRENT COVID SCENARIO.

What it does

The COVID-19 virus has hit all of us pretty hard, from times of stockpiling household needs to stockpiling Oxygen cylinders and vaccines, the virus has shown us all. The stores selling all these items were flooded like never before, reaching beyond their holding capacities. we saw people rushing towards these stores to collect these items. These hoard-like movements led to the spread of the virus, even more, resulting in India reach global ranking 2 in terms of the COVID-19 leaderboard.

The Diligence bot is an ingenious idea to reduce the movement of human beings. Each and every household has seen the scarcity of one or the other items at their homes during the lockdown times and the situation still persists and going out on our own escalates the risk of getting infected with the virus. And here comes the Diligence bot into play, it is an autonomous bot that moves using the GPS (Ublox Neo 6m), working in harmony with a magnetometer (MPU9250) and ultrasonic sensors (Object avoidance). The bot is designed to deliver the loads/ packages from one person/seller to another person/buyer, without any human movements.

The movement of delivery guys has increased in recent times with relaxations in the lockdown as people resist going out. And these delivery people connect each and every household, hence becoming the prime carriers of the virus, raising the risk of the delivers personals catching the infection and spreading it furthermore.

The Diligence-bot can be the medium to deliver things from one place to another, the bot will be equipped with self-sanitizing systems that sanitize the bot frequently, decreasing the chances of the bot itself spreading the virus. The bot also will collect the data of infected and patients potentially being infected with the virus as it moves. As the bot delivers a package it asks the user about the virus spread situation in his/her area, which helps collect data that can be used to form better and strong stats, to help control the curve. the diligence bot also will contain the required equipment for examining the people around it.

How we built it

The Diligence bot is built with lots of love and also some electronic components and a source code. The bot is built using, an MCU (Arduino Mega), which serves as the central commander of the actions the bot performs, it also onboards a GPS (Ublox Neo 6m) sensor, that provides it with its position on Earth in real-time. The GPS module was not enough for the bot to keep moving towards the destination with the right DIRECTION, so an IMU ( MPU9250) was also installed to give the bot direction, the IMU acts as a compass that helps the bot with the headings. These two ( GPS and IMU) together work in harmony for making it possible for the bot to move around the given paths.

The GPS module provides the GPS coordinates which are required to comprehend the current and the destination positions, and the IMU helps the bot with direction, as it works as a magnetometer and provides informations regarding the magnetic headings so that the bot is always moving towards the destination co-ordinate.

Then comes the object avoidance property which enables the bot from running into nearby and fore coming obstacles, and the strategic placement of the ultrasonic sensors makes it possible for the bot to move more efficiently.

The onboard motor driver module (L298n) helps move to control the movements and speed of the motors.

The destination coordinates are fed into the bot, the bot then seeks its own location and also collects some waypoints as checkpoints in the way. The bot then starts its movement towards each and every waypoint by using a loop that refreshes the waypoint each and every time the bot passes the current one. And when the ultrasonic sensor detects any fore coming obstacles they send the distance information to the bot and the bot then moves away from the obstacle and recalculates its path.

Challenges we ran into

There were challenges of making the IMU produce acceleration and gyro corrected magnetometer readings that provide the headings. also, the integration of GPS and IMU was a stepping task that we did for the bot to start its journey. then also came the magnetometer calibration algorithms and various methods for calibrating the bot

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The bot was successfully able to get the hang around the place and maneuver around the locality without crashing into things around it.

What we learned

We learned many things about magnetometers and GPS navigation that helped us expand our knowledge and also the project help me and my partner vibe with each other during these hard times of the pandemic.

What's next for DILIGENCE-BOT

The bot is getting robotic arms that will help it do examinations on the go, while it moves, it will be examining people on the go. The locations where the bot will be delivering or picking up packages it will be examining the respected personals around it.

Also, the addition of CV is underway for the bot so that it can distinguish between things it sees on the run and help collect respective data.

It will also be switching to completely renewable energy sources in the coming updates, to make it more environment friendly.