This is a collection of the programming work that went into the autonomous claw project for UBC's APSC 101, Introduction to Engineering II. The goal of the project was to semi-autonomously pick up objects of different sizes and weights and transport them to a dropoff location accurately and efficiently.
studio_sonar_servo.ino - An initial implementation of controlling a servo motor based on sonar distances
sonar_servo.ino - A more refined sonar and servo program using the switch...case framework, later used in the final program
claw.ino - The final claw code that incorporates all of my learning and hard work
Please refer to the LICENSE if you are using any of my code for your own project
Our group made two claws to use in the competiton. The first, namde Huggey Jr., was a combination of early prototypes and it performed quite well. For this reason, our second claw was just a refined version, named Huggey Sr., that was built using more precise measurements and a longer sonar arm so that there would be less interference. Here are some photos of the claws side by side:
This first video shows me testing the studio_sonar_servo.ino code with my hand. As you can see it works quite well, but there are a few stutters which I addressed with a distance array in sonar_servo.ino.
studio_sonar_servo.mp4
This video demonstrates Huggey Jr. in action. It faced a few distance detection issues part-way through which is why we chose to extend the sonar arm for Huggey Sr.
huggey_jr.mp4
Our final result, a demonstration of Huggey Sr. picking up objects flawlessly.