Chapter Events Highlight- Smartphone Controlled Robotics Workshop

 

Smartphone Controlled Robotics Workshop and Hackathon

 

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society RIT Student Branch Chapter conducted a two - day workshop and hackathon on “Smartphone Controlled Robotics” on 8 February 2020 and 9 February 2020 at the EEE department. The workshop was sponsored by the chapter startup grant from IEEE RAS.

The session was handled by Mr. Anish M S, Young Professional from IEEE Kerala Section. A total of 60 students actively participated in the workshop where the participants acquired the skills to compete in the following hackathon.The participants were trained from scratch on the various hardware components involved in the workshop.

 The students were divided into 10 groups, each of 6 members. The top two teams were selected from the hackathon and awarded the prizes.

The session also comprised a membership development program mentored by Er. Anish MS , himself the former chair of IEEE RAS SBC CEA.

SESSION 1- Familiarisation: The two- day workshop and following hackathon commenced with the familiarisation of equipment and tools used in making the robot. The familiarisation session was from 9:00am to 10:20am on 8 February 2020. The participants were acquainted with the equipment they used throughout the workshop, like Arduino Uno, HC06 Bluetooth Module, Geared DC Motors and Motor Driver.

SESSION 2- Hands - On Session: A hands – on session was held from 10:30 am to 1:00pm to teach the participants about basic Arduino Programming, HC06 Bluetooth module testing, and Motor testing. Arduino Bluetooth Controller App was also introduced to the participants by Mr. Anish M S.

SESSION 3- Construction: The components for building the robot were distributed to the participants at 2:00pm on 8 February 2020. Each team began constructing their own robot actively, and the basic structure of the robots were completed by 5:00pm of the first day.

SESSION 4- SPCR Programming: The last session of the workshop was Smartphone Controlled Robotics Programming tutorial by Mr. Anish M S from 9:00am to 10:30am on 9 February 2020. The participating teams completed the construction of their respective robots and tested them.

SESSION 5- Hackathon: The Smartphone Controlled Robotics Hackathon commenced by 10:45am on 9 February 2020. The participating teams were shown the arena where their robots were to be tested. The participants developed solutions for the given problem and tested it through trial runs.

The final session of the hackathon was testing the robots, which began at 2:00pm of the second day. The robots developed by each team were tested and evaluated based on the time taken to complete the run. The testing of robots ended by 3:30pm.

SESSION 6- Membership Development Session and Feedback:

Following the completion of the robot testing by 3:30pm, a membership development session was conducted, during which Mr. Anish M S spoke of his experiences on IEEE, and the benefits of it, motivating the students.

The prize distribution ceremony was held afterwards.

First Prize – Abhijith Harikumar of S4 ECE, Muhammed Sabique of S4 ECE.

Second Prize – Aparna A. of S4 ECE, Keerthana P. of S4 ECE, Amruth of S2 ECE.

The participants were asked to give their feedbacks to the program, and they responded with excellent feedbacks. The workshop/hackathon helped the participants in learning the principles and applications of robotics controlled by smartphones, and everyone had a good time.