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	Introduction: A.B.C. is born from the idea of simplifying the practice of the game of tennis, more specifically, the practice of the service. We saw the need for an autonomous machine that would collect the balls after service practice from the other side of the court, and thus allowing the player to concentrate and use most of his or her time in practice and not in the process of recovering the tennis balls. Overview: The A.B.C. is an efficient, robust and effective robot that is equipped with a ball collecting mechanism, computer vision and a set of sensors that allow it to seek and collect the balls. A.B.C. is a differential drive robot with two DC motors on the back controlled by an h-bridge and two caster wheels on the front. The chassis of A.B.C. was designed by us following and improving different designs found in our research. The body of A.B.C. is mostly made of clear plastic and it comes with an easy to access cage that separates from the body to allow the user to grab the collected balls without the need to reach down for them. The plastic cage can be pulled from the top of the robot and comes with a handle for 2 easy detachments. Once the balls have been retrieved, the user only needs to place the cage back in and A.B.C. is ready for another round of balls. The actual mechanism for collecting the balls is a roller with paddles that rotates and along with the movement of the robot, pushes the balls inside of the robot to the cage located in the back. The roller is being rotated via a dc motor located on top of A.B.C. and can be turn on and off, as well as forward and backwards depending on the software configuration. The roller is programmed to only turn when the ball is close to the robot, and it is turned off again once the ball is successfully collected. The computer vision of A.B.C. comes in the way of a Blackfin camera that provides all the image processing needed to ensure the tracking of the balls. The camera relays on color tracking algorithms to differentiate the tennis balls from the objects around them. Furthermore, the Blackfin camera is mounted on pan and tilt servos on the front of the robot, on top of the roller. A.B.C. also has remote controlled capabilities that relay on the use of an Xbee wireless adaptor mounted on top of the robot. The XBee is connected to a microcontroller and receives its input from a laptop computer. The range of the Xbee is more than enough to cover the entire Tennis court. Our robot is capable of returning to a base after collecting the tennis balls. The base will be an object with a very identifiable color different from the one of the tennis balls, and the return will be achieved using the same color tracking functions used to track the balls. A.B.C.’s budget is around $700 $ and will be paid by us without any type of partnership or sponsorship. Due to this, we tried to focus our attention into finding the best and cheapest way to build our robot while still meeting our expectations. The following picture shows an overview of the A.B.C. robot.

Introduction:

A.B.C. is born from the idea of simplifying the practice of the game of tennis, more specifically, the practice of the service. We saw the need for an autonomous machine that would collect the balls after service practice from the other side of the court, and thus allowing the player to concentrate and use most of his or her time in practice and not in the process of recovering the tennis balls.

Overview:

The A.B.C. is an efficient, robust and effective robot that is equipped with a ball collecting mechanism, computer vision and a set of sensors that allow it to seek and collect the balls. A.B.C. is a differential drive robot with two DC motors on the back controlled by an h-bridge and two caster wheels on the front. The chassis of A.B.C. was designed by us following and improving different designs found in our research. The body of A.B.C. is mostly made of clear plastic and it comes with an easy to access cage that separates from the body to allow the user to grab the collected balls without the need to reach down for them. The plastic cage can be pulled from the top of the robot and comes with a handle for 2 easy detachments. Once the balls have been retrieved, the user only needs to place the cage back in and A.B.C. is ready for another round of balls. The actual mechanism for collecting the balls is a roller with paddles that rotates and along with the movement of the robot, pushes the balls inside of the robot to the cage located in the back. The roller is being rotated via a dc motor located on top of A.B.C. and can be turn on and off, as well as forward and backwards depending on the software configuration. The roller is programmed to only turn when the ball is close to the robot, and it is turned off again once the ball is successfully collected. The computer vision of A.B.C. comes in the way of a Blackfin camera that provides all the image processing needed to ensure the tracking of the balls. The camera relays on color tracking algorithms to differentiate the tennis balls from the objects around them. Furthermore, the Blackfin camera is mounted on pan and tilt servos on the front of the robot, on top of the roller. A.B.C. also has remote controlled capabilities that relay on the use of an Xbee wireless adaptor mounted on top of the robot. The XBee is connected to a microcontroller and receives its input from a laptop computer. The range of the Xbee is more than enough to cover the entire Tennis court. Our robot is capable of returning to a base after collecting the tennis balls. The base will be an object with a very identifiable color different from the one of the tennis balls, and the return will be achieved using the same color tracking functions used to track the balls. A.B.C.’s budget is around $700 $ and will be paid by us without any type of partnership or sponsorship. Due to this, we tried to focus our attention into finding the best and cheapest way to build our robot while still meeting our expectations. The following picture shows an overview of the A.B.C. robot.

Autonomous Ball Collector

Introduction:

Overview:

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