Ping Pong Robot (2023)

For my final project in ENGR 200, I designed and built a robot that could drive around and pick up ping pong balls on a course. It would pick up the balls into its net and then dump them in a specified spot.

Final Design

Our final robot design could drive in all directions and pick up and drop ping pong balls using its net. It included a 9V battery pack and 3 DC motors that ran off of 3V each. It used gearboxes to hold the motors and create gear trains to increase motor torque. We also added some holes to reduce weight in our design and some weights on the front to balance the weight of the net and motor on the back.

Wheel Design

We started with using four circular wheels, two in the front, two in the back. Each back wheel had a 3 V DC motor connected to it with a gearbox and train to increase torque.. We then changed to a single, spherical front wheel that was actually a ping pong ball, held by a 3D designed and printed wheel well that allowed for 360 degree turn motion.

Remote Design

We needed a handheld remote to control the direction of the DC Motors. It was important that the wheels could turn both forwards and back wards, so the robot could go left and right. We used three, three position switches' (forwards, off, backwards) to control the three motors. Two for wheels and one for the arm. We 3D modeled and printed this remote design to be easy to hold and operate, and to hold the 9V battery pack that powered the robot.

Arm Design

We used the last 3V Dc Motor to control the arm that would pick up and drop the ping pong balls. We designed, modeled, and 3D printed a few different arms before settling on our final net design. The original scoop design would not hold the ball firmly, so we switched to a tension net. The arm slapped down on top of the ball, the net strings expanded and let the ball in the net. Then we lined the robot up and dumped the balls in the net in the correct spot.