Engineering Projects/BallBot/Howard Community College/Fall2011/501 BBotz2

Problem Statement
Get a basketball to balance on a 3 wheeled base and then control the wheels individually to rotate and sping the basketball without allowing it to fall out from the wheels.

Team Members

 * Corey
 * Kang
 * Teddy Hanson

Story
Based on this video the goal of the project is to first build a robot upon which a basketball can be mounted and the wheels can be controlled individually to spin the basketball around without losing control or causing the basketball to fly off the wheels. Then the goal would be to make that same robot balance on the basketball and move around while maintaining balance.

Decision List
Dismantle Tribot.

Program an Arduino instead of using the boards the Tribot came with.

Material List
Arduino

Wowwee Tribot and all attached pieces it comes with from box.

Screwdriver.

Software List
Arduino

Java (to program Arduino)

Time
Estimated time spent dimantling Tribot ~4 hours with 2 focused solely on the base.

6+ hours minimum to program Arduino, this includes time spent to learn Java from scratch.

Tutorials
Free Java tutorials and lessons

Next Steps
Write a program to control the wheels individually and work with the remote of the Wowwee Tribot. The current remote and boards interface still, but the wheels cannot be controlled individually as the project stands. Also, with the physical construction of the ballbot a base is needed to mount the wheels on and the power source needs to be moved from between the wheels, probably lowered to serve also as a bridge between the base and wheel tripod where the wheels will be mounted. Also, wheels motors may have to be moved closer together, but this may not be possible as new ways to hold the motors may need to be devised(they are currently in their original base and secured solidly).