Meeting on 25 May 2024

Arduino Display

Paul has been doing some Arduino coding to get the Tinkerers website details onto the display. This is proving the capability to write information to the display that we can later use to show other useful information in future projects. As an example it could be used to show the temperature and humidity in a greenhouse.

Robotics

Helen’s Autonomous Rover

Helen has spent the last year building, refining and developing her autonomous robot. The robot is built from a combination of Lego and a robot “kit”. The robot moves around the room avoiding obstacles using an ultrasonic detector, much like a reversing warning system in a car.

As the project has developed the complexity of the robot has increased to the point where is currently has 3 microcontrollers (computers)! The majority of the robot function is carried out by an Arduino Mega, but there are also 2 other computers, one giving a camera view from the robot and a second one providing debugging information.

Helen has learnt an enormous amount from building and writing the code for this robot, but it’s time for a new challenge!

The Micromouse Competition

The micromouse competition has been running since the early 1970s. The aim of the competition is to build a micromouse robot that can navigate a maze, finding its way to the center in the fastest time possible.

Helen has decided that this should be her next robotics challenge, and Vance has decided to have a go too. We can share some of the development of the robot, maybe building our own from scratch, but we can also challenge each other to try and make the best micromouse. Our aim will be to get our micromice ready for the 2025 competition.

If you are interested in the micromouse competition and want to be involved with our discussions and development then please Contact Us.