Project Information

I had the incredible privilege of leading Team Mora, our robotics team from the University of Moratuwa, to proudly represent Sri Lanka at ABU RoboCon 2023 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Over a demanding three months, we rose to the challenge, meticulously crafting the electronics, mechanical components, and control systems for two robots named the Rabbit Robot and the Elephant Robot. The robots had to perform the task of picking up a stack of rings and tossing them onto poles in a known arena. Further details about the rules of the competition can be found on the ABU RoboCon 2023 Website.
I was in charge of the Rabbit Robot which included CAD Design, Schematic Design, Construction and Programming. The Rabbit Robot was made out of aluminium and 3D printed parts which were designed using Autodesk Fusion 360. The schematics were designed using Autodesk EAGLE but we could not produce a PCB due to shipping time constraints, so the circuit was hand soldered. Two ESP32 microcontrollers communicating via UART were used for processing. One ESP32 was paired with a PS4 Controller via Bluetooth for remote control. This ESP32 controlled the wheel motor divers and passed commands to the other ESP32 which controlled the robot arm servos. The robots were programmed in C++ using PlatformIO as the development environment.
Our rapid prototyping process helped us build and test these robots to execute the given task within tight budget and time constraints. This journey not only helped us enchance our technical skills but also underscored the power of collaboration and determination in achieving remarkable feats on the global stage.