Robodog

Inspiration:

In the recent humanitarian crises unfolding in Ukraine and Gaza, casualties have reached levels that have completely overwhelmed support systems. Solutions are needed to help find and get assistance to victims who are trapped behind or under rubble.

What it does

Robodog searches an area, using its camera to recognize people in need. Once identified, robodog notifies first responders of the individual, provides reassurance until help arrives.

How we built it

We used the "Boombox" variant of the Sunfounder picar-x kit to build the physical robot. Leveraging the Picar-x, Robot Hat, and Vilib packages, we developed a multithreaded autonomous search algorithm that probes an area searching for humans.

Challenges we ran into

Initially, build errors caused fatal servo and camera issues. After rebuilding successfully, network issues caused intermittent disconnections with the raspberry pi 4. Pivoting to a different strategy for connection, we then ran into motor issues that significantly disrupted the calibration of the vehicle.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud to have successfully built, tested, and configured our first autonomous robot. Our collaboration, problem solving skills, adaptation, and perseverance were put on full display during the build process. Interfacing with mentors and other students was a key component to our success in this endeavor.

What we learned

We gained significant experience planning and iterating in an unfamiliar problem space. We also developed our understanding of embedded programming, remote connections, virtual machines, and other fundamental CS concepts.

What's next for Robodog

In future updates, Robodog will be equipped with speech to text capabilities to gather information about a scene from persons it locates, while they are still in sufficient condition to provide such information. Additionally, Robodog's capabilities can be applied as a seeing-eye dog for blind people. Augmented with text to speech, speech to text, GPS, and agentic generative AI technologies, Robodog will be poised to benefit an even greater set of people, in even more ways.

Built With

• picar-x
• python
• robot-hat
• vilib