e-Yantra Robotics Competition

eYRC#967
Team leader name
College
Email
Theme assigned
Date

Scope

Sarthak Chauhan
Acharya Narendra Dev College
sarthak95chauhan@gmail.com
Warehouse Management
12-12-14

(5)

State the scope of the theme assigned to you.

Warehouse Management system is the key part of the supply chain and primarily aims to control the movement
and storage of materials within Warehouse and processes the associated transactions including shipping,
receiving, and picking of goods.
Since the numerous processes which takes place in the Warehouse (i.e. shipping, receiving, and picking) which
are essential part of warehouse management which are done by man labor can also be conducted by
programmable robots.
The scope and purpose of such an application in this area of work are:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Efficiency- This increases the efficiency in warehouse management systems as a single robot can be made
to replace more than one man labor as being able to perform as many as required functions instead of
one.
Flexibility-A man labor is specialized in performing a single task whereas a robot is a programmable entity
which can be reprogrammed and made to do various other tasks.
Robots increases efficiency and reduces errors.
Speed and precision increases in using robots when compared with man labor as taking into consideration
that man labor also gets tired while performing tasks in the warehouse.

Building Modules

(5)

Identify the major components in your robotic system provided required for designing a
solution to the theme assigned.
Components are divided into 3 main categories that are mechanical system, electronic system, and sensors.
MECHANICAL SYSTEM COMPONENTS:
1. DC geared motors- these are used to move the fire bird V in the arena to complete the task provided.it
helps in motion of the robot in the desired direction depending on the combination of the rotation of a
single wheel.

2.

Caster wheel- this is the component which is mounted at the front bottom side of fire bird V which helps
in the free rotation of the front portion of the fire bird.
3. Servos-these are the actuators that are externally mounted on the fire bird V to make an robotic arm to
pick up the boxes and place them to their desired positions in the arena. The servo moves in such a way
that when the robot sense the box the servo moves and the hand opens and then closes with the
simultaneous motion of the robot so that the box gets trap between the servos.
ELECTRONIC SYSTEM COMPONENTS:
1. Position encoders-these are electronic system components that help in the detection of the fire bird V
robot in the given arena to our allotted theme. These help in such a way that when the robot moves the
position encoders send a pulse wave to the microcontroller board which interprets it in such a way that it
gives us the velocity and position of the fire bird V robot.
2. Lcd interfacing - the lcd interfacing is required in the allotted task because the sensors sense the
environment and the data is in analog form which is displayed on the lcd due to which errors reduces and
efficiency increases.
3. Buzzer -buzzer is required in the fire bird V robot because according to the rules of the task it is required
to beep every time robot sense an invalid package/box in the arena which can be done by buzzer which is
internally place in the fire bird V robot.
SENSORS COMPONENTS:
1. Sharp IR sensors - these sensors are used to determine accurate distance measurement of on object from
the fire bird V robot which is used in the allotted task as to sense the package/box in the arena which is to
be picked up and place in the designated place in the arena. In total 5 sharp IR sensor can be mounted on
the robot and the range of the sensor is 10cm-80cm. less than 10cm distance is considered as the blind
spot of the sensor.
2. Infrared proximity sensor- it determines the distance of the object from robot in the blind spot that its
range is 0-10cm.it is used to counter sudden tackle of the robot with the object in the arena.
3. White line sensors-these are used to determine that the robot stays on its path of traversal. There are 3
white line sensors in the fire bird V robot.

Actuators

(10)

List all the actuators present on Firebird V robot. Besides the existing actuators, please
mention the additional actuators that may be required for designing the robotic system in
your theme if any.
Actuators present on the fire bird V:
1. Two 60 RPM DC geared motors-these are responsible for motion of the robot in the arena.
Actuators that we required additionally:
1. Servo motors-these are responsible for the movement of the arms for lifting and delivering the packages
in the arena.

Explain the mechanism for controlling the actuators on your robot.

1 DC geared motors these are responsible for the motion of the robot in the arena. A single motor works on two
bit input i.e. logic 0 is negative and logic 1 is positive logics on which it works. On different combinations of these
logic motor will work in different directions.

The next most important entity to consider are the two L293D ICs mounted on the fire bird V which are dual Hbridge bidirectional ICs .since these IC takes various inputs in terms of 1 and 0 and control the direction of the
motor these are also called as motor driving ICs. it can supply about 600mA current to each motor. Below are the
basic H-bridge diagram and pin diagram of the L293D IC.

The L293D IC is a 16 pin IC that has:

1.
2.
3.
4.

Enable pins: 1 and 9 are enable pins and must be always be high.
Input pins to which the inputs from the microcontroller are been fed to the IC are 2,7,10, and 15.
Output pins: 3,6,11, and 14 are the output pins which are connected to motors.
Voltage pins: 8 (it is the supply voltage for driving the motors) & 16 (it is the supply voltage of 5V for
driving the IC).

5. 4,5,12 and 13 are to be connected to the ground.

Environment sensing

(10)

Explain the functioning of environment sensing technique used by Firebird V robot in your
theme.
The censors which are going to be used in the fire bird V robot to complete the task provided:
1. Sharp IR censors these sensors are used to determine accurate distance measurement of on object from
the fire bird V robot which is used in the allotted task as to sense the package/box in the arena which is to
be picked up and place in the designated place in the arena. In total 5 sharp IR sensor can be mounted on
the robot and the range of the sensor is 10cm-80cm. less than 10cm distance is considered as the blind
spot of the sensor. These sensors are needed in our task as to detect the packages in the arena in front of
the fire bird robot.
2. Infrared proximity sensor- it determines the distance of the object from robot in the blind spot that its
range is 0-10cm.it is used to counter sudden tackle of the robot with the object in the arena.
3. White line sensors-these are used to determine that the robot stays on its path of traversal. There are 3
white line sensors in the fire bird V robot.

4.

IR color censors-these are to be used in the robot so as to detect the color of the package of the box that
we are picking so as to deliver the package on the right delivering spot we need to use the IR color
censors.

Power Management

(5)

Explain the power management system required for a robot in general and for Firebird V
robot in particular.
Efficient energy usage is crucial because energy consumption increases with spread of robot technologies in
various fields. Power consumption in a robot system changes according to the task and its operating environment.
So in general a robot must have such a power management system on board so that it gives maximum power
efficiency.
In fire bird V robot there is a 9.6V rechargeable NIMH battery and the robot can also be powered by auxiliary
power supply charger. Power management block on fire bird V performs following functions which in overall
increase the efficiency and proves to be an efficient power management system
1. Battery voltage monitoring and smart charging.
2. Regulates supply for onboard pay-load.
3. Battery current sensing.
Which in all leads to an efficient power management system in fire bird V.
We would be using auxiliary power supply charger because there is a need to connect servos which will be used to
pick up the boxes and place them in there designated place in the arena according to the task due to which an
extra load on the robot due to which the battery will drain at a faster rate than in usual and at the same time we
have to pick and drop the parcels through a route which the robot will sense according to the environmental
placement of the boxes due to which the path travel may increase due to these facts it is best to use an auxiliary
supply in the allotted theme of warehouse management.

Navigation Scheme

(10)

Explain in brief the basic navigation technique for path traversal in the arena. Explain the
concept and list the components required for basic navigation.
As according to the rulebook the robot would be placed at the start point of the arena and when the robot is
switched on the robot will travel the marked black line on the arena with the help of the white line sensors which
would be calibrated as such to follow the black line. The position encoder mounted in the fire bird V will help keep
track of the position of the robot. As soon as all the line following sensors are in the node/3cm box region the
robot will rotate right and on the next node will detect the package/box and will rotate towards it and detect its
color if the color are either of red, blue or green the robot will screen a light of that color on the RGB led and will
pick the package/box and would travel to the designated box no to which the package is to be delivered and then
follow the same path back to the last package and proceed forward if the package is of the color black then the
robot will use buzzer for 1 sec to indicate as an invalid package and if the sensor does not detect any package on
the end of the node it will not enter the node and proceed forward. The path travelled by the robot is always from
the center line to the delivering position except in certain conditions.

START

Robot will follow the

black line and will
reach the first node.

Robot will take a right and when it reaches

the 2nd node will sense the presence of the
box at the right end of the node.

If it founds the box will move right sense the colour of

the box and follow the path to the delivering position
else would not enter the node if no box is sensed.

It will move
forward to the
next node.

Robot will place the box in the area of

deposition.

After placing the box it will follow

back the path to the last node.

Testing your knowledge (Based on color sensor datasheet and

tutorial)

(10)

What is the principle of operation of the color sensor?

Avago's RGB color sensor products and how for a variety of color sensing applications. The sensor device is highend equipment, such as spectrophotometer it can be low-end devices, such as RGB color sensors. The working

principle of the color sensor is divided into three different types of color sensors: light to photocurrent conversion,
light-to-analog voltage converter, and light-to-digital conversion. A sensor which is used to identify the color of an
object.
It can be used to identify four colors which are RED, BLUE, GREEN and BLACK.
It generates a square waveform. The frequency of the waveform generated varies when the sensor is exposed to
different colors. Thus on the basis of different frequencies we can identify the colors using the color sensor. There
is a transmitter and a receiver in a sensor. The transmitter transmits the wave and receiver receives the returned
wave. Hence, different waves are returned when a sensor approaches different colors. So, we get different
readings in our LCD screen

What are the functions of pins 1-8 of the color sensor?

Pins 1- is output frequency scaling Selection input.
Pins 2- is also output frequency scaling Selection input.
Pin 3- is not connected.
Pin 4-is ground.
Pin 5- is Vdd (5 Volts).
Pin 6- is the output Pin.
PIN 7- is photodiode type selection input.
PIN 8- is also photodiode type selection input.

What is frequency scaling and why is it necessary?

Frequency scaling is the technique of ramping a processors frequency so as to achieve performance gains.
Frequency scaling leads to increasing the efficiency of a processor. As the color sensor that is used generates a very
high frequency waveform. Hence, the concept of frequency scaling is used to scale it down so as to measure its
frequency.

Did you study the color sensor tutorial?

Yes.

Did you burn the demo code on Firebird V and test the color sensor?
Yes.
Was your color sensor working fine?
Yes.

Please note: You have to burn the demo code on Firebird V (the robot in your kit) to test the color
sensor. If you do not test the color sensor and report any problem in this document, we will assume
that your color sensor is working fine. We will not entertain any queries related to faulty color sensor
later on; Teams will have to buy the color on their own.

Challenges

(5)

What are the major challenges that you can anticipate in addressing this theme?
The major challenges that are anticipated in addressing our theme are1.
2.

3.

4.

5.

There is a limit of completing the task within certain time. The challenge is to complete this task in the
shortest time possible.
All blocks should be placed inside the appropriate deposition zone. Blocks which protrude beyond the
border of deposition zone are not to be considered as deposition i.e. it is required that the box must be
placed inside the boundaries of that deposition zone.
Although sample chart paper of all these colors are provided in our kit. We may need to purchase
additional chart paper for preparing the block. Even minor variation in the shades of the cart paper can
cause error in detection of these color boxes.
As the robot should be completely autonomous, so it is required that the coding for the sensors should be
accurate. Hence proper coding for the sensors so that they can identify blue, red, and green color
separately is a must need for the automation of the robot.
Also only two repositioning is granted. Hence, it is must that the robot should follow the black line strictly
as after repositioning, we will have to start from the beginning. So, it will lead to wastage of time and
deduction of marks.