TracMan

A view of the underside of the TracMan, from the front to the back.

Inspiration

We wanted to use imaging to steer a vehicle.

What it does

As we move a handheld object in front of a camera, the vehicle moves itself in the direction of the handheld object's movement.

How we built it

Our original idea was to make a moving trash can, which adjusts its location to 'catch' trash thrown in its direction. With this goal, we worked on three parts:

The code which would allow tracking of a 'piece of trash' and move the wheel motors accordingly
The electronic component which involved connecting the raspberry pi, arduino, and motors
The wooden base upon which the trash can would rest and electronics/motors would be mounted on

During the process, we decided to change the device to something which is guided by the movement of the object, rather than trying to catch the object. This also gave it applications beyond just a 'trash can.'

We used the opencv library to write code that would recognize the movement of a red ball in front of a laptop camera, and move the motors accordingly. We connected the motors to an electronic circuit comprising the raspberry pi, arduino, and step-up motor driver. We designed a wooden base and mounts, and attached the electronics to these.

Challenges we ran into

Figuring out tracking of the object was a challenge, as was controlling high-speed motors using the raspberry pi. At some times we had to think around using pieces of equipment that weren't available.