WiperBot

March 2018 to August 2018

Proposal

Wiping a dirty dining table after a meal has always been one of my most hated chores. Next year, ten of my friends and I will be moving from our college dorm into our own house. We plan to get a long rectangular table for all of us to eat, study, and play board games at. The table is bound to get dirty with food crumbs, sauces, etc. and will create conflict as no one will want to clean it. I realized that a robot could easily get the job done. The goal of this project is to build and program an Arduino controlled bot which will autonomously wipe a dirty dining table.

Design

I will be using the following materials/parts for the WiperBot:

3D printed PLA plastic chassis
- will allow me to rapidly prototype
2 continuous rotation servos
- already geared down compared to a DC motor
- simple to control
- good for low-load applications
2 plastic wheels with silicone tires
4 AA batteries
Arduino controller
2 Infrared Sensors
- will be used to make sure the robot doesn't fall off the table
Gyroscope
- will help the robot drive straight and make accurate turns
4 neodymium magnets
- These magnets will be used to secure the wipe to the bottom of the chassis

Coding

I will be using the Arduino IDE to program the WiperBot. The Arduino IDE consists of a mix of C/C++ functions.

Future Versions

I plan to add the following capabilities to the WiperBot in the future:

ultrasonic sensors to avoid obstacles on the table such as candles/plates/etc.
ability to wipe tables of other shapes

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