MACRO

The MACRO was designed as separate components that were then integrated at the end of the project. The most important of which, and also the base for the entire machine, was the drive system. Using a set of gears, three wheels on each side were tied together to form distinct "sides" of the robot. Two wheels were in contact with the ground at all times and provided excellent traction control when traversing obstacles. A third wheel was placed in between those two wheels and raised off the ground - this wheel was designed to reduce the possibility that the MACRO could be pinned on a particularly difficult obstacle.

Luckily, the main challenge in the fall semester was very similar to a problem I'd solved in middle school, in FIRST Lego League (FLL). Using a single sensor tuned to look for reflected light, I devised an algorithm to determine the difference between black and white surfaces and then target the robot's direction towards the gradient between the two. In this way, the MACRO was constantly adjusting itself, making sure it was able to keep itself on the guideline at all times.