TL;DR

Guardians fights on!

Introduction

Last year this time, team Guardian was fighting their way into WRO. This year, while I had formed another team, the spirit remains to tackle recycling waste. For those who missed out what happened, you can read up on Guardian 3.0 here. There’s a quick explanation behind the purpose and motive behind the project.

Brainstorming

Having learnt from previous experience, the team gathered to discuss on what can stay and what needs to be improved on. This also helps the team to be on the same page and map out what needs to be done.

Choices

There were a few main things that needs to be further thought out.

Firstly, the team can choose between a four wheel or a two wheel drive with a set of dummy wheels. Both of these has their pros and cons. A few considerations include the height and weight of the robot. Would the motors be able to drive the entire contraption?

Secondly, would the team choose the use of a turn table similar to that of last year or go for a more grid like design to save space. If so, the position to which the drop mechanism is would need to be move accordingly.

Lastly comes the decision on where to have the monitor as well as chute opening. Do we go for a motorised chute design or a simple drop in design. What would the target audience be? If we cater for the younger children, would they be able to reach up for the opening?

Software

The software portion remains largely unchanged. Compared to last time, there are certain ideas that needs to come alive including the self driving concept whereby we had managed to procure a Lidar to aid with this.