H.A.L.P. (Help All Living Pets)

grabcad

In a 5-week time frame, our team created H.A.L.P., a fully autonomous robot, for the annual Engineering Physics project course competition. The theme was "Pet Rescue," requiring robots to autonomously follow a course, retrieve six pets, and return them to safety. Our hard work paid off: H.A.L.P. consistently rescued all pets and placed third. Furthermore, we received top marks for build quality and prototyping. The robot was constructed from scratch using 3D modeling in Solidworks, manufacturing with waterjet machines, laser cutters, 3D printers, sheet metal bending, and spot welding. Electrical components included an IR beacon sensing circuit and H-bridge motor driver circuits, which were prototyped, tested, and soldered. The robot's intelligence stemmed from its Arduino platform, integrating mechanical and electrical elements with control software featuring wheel encoding and PID control of the main arm and steering.