CTRL
CTRL in its collapsed height, autonomously pushing “Gobstoppers” in the chocolate river.
CTRL in its full expanded configuration, pushing an “Oompa Loompa” up the plastic tube.
A tight fit for the collapsed configuration of CTRL to fit under the plastic tube.
What is it?:
CTRL is the robot that I created for the spring 2018 MIT 2.007 Final Competition. The competition was themed after Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and the point scoring tasks for robots to complete were themed accordingly.
CTRL scores points through autonomously driving and pushing “Gobstoppers” into a chocolate river, as well as through lifting an “Oompa Loompa” with a winch driven linear lifting system via remote control.
CTRL was machined out of basic stock materials distributed at the beginning of the semester, and placed in the top 32 out of 128 robots at the final competition.
You can watch my robot race in the semifinals here. I’m wearing the olive green jacket, and I begin racing around the 6 minute mark.
How did you contribute?
As this was an individual class project, I was responsible for the end-to-end design and manufacturing of the robot. I began with idea generation and technical drawing in CAD, but transitioned to physical prototyping and machining, as well as programming the driving functions in Arduino as the semester progressed.
Biggest Takeaways?
The importance of iteration in the design process
The importance of failing fast
Confidence in taking a creative idea from paper to physical system
Getting excited for the final competition!