Club Robot Training

= Training System =

The club currently does two training sessions a year which lasts three weeks each. Each session starts two weeks after the beginning of both spring and fall semesters. The training is provided free, and formed groups receive a simple robot chasis (PSRC-I, see below) and electronics to work with.

The three weeks are based off of three tutorials, as follows:


 * 1. Locomotion
 * 2. Sensors
 * 3. Logic

Once a group completes these tutorials, they are recommended to pick a Tabletop Robotics competition and continue developing their robot. The following categories, each with many articles inside, show several topics the team may investigate to create a competitive robot.

In order of relevance to the club tutorials
 * Competitions - Competitions list, including tabletop and collegiate levels
 * Tutorials - More tutorials, from sensors to wall following algorithms
 * Hardware - A2D to sample robots
 * Arduino - The club's main microcontroller
 * Programming - General programming tips and links to helpful sites
 * Miscellaneous - Miscellaneous topics

The club is also activly involved with Collegiate Robotics competitions, but does not formally provide training for this level of difficulty. If you have some experiance in robotics, such as with the above tutorials, the team leaders for each project will be able to train you on a 1-to-1 basis as needed.

= Training Robot Chasis =

PSRC-I is the first robot designed and mass produced by members of the Penn State Robotics Club for this tutorial system. The robot was created to be simple, robust, flexible, and easy to modify. Our goal was to provide a viable platform for competitions such as Capture the Flag and the Firefighting Robot Competition, removing the initial difficulty of getting started with these competitions for new members. The robots were commissioned for the Spring 2009 semester, where they saw their first use in the Firefighting Robot competition. As of 2010, the chasis have not changed, though each chasis can now either have a servo or motor attatched.

Design
The Design of the robot is meant to be as simple as possible. A circular shape was chosen for great maneuverability with the differential drive layout. Because of this design, only two wheels and a caster are required to support the weight of the robot.

The chassis is constructed from 1/8" thick PVC, which was cut out on a Water Jet machine. The base plate was designed so the wheel mount tabs could be glued in with PVC cement.  Each wheel mount tab can accommodate one servo modified for continuous rotation or the club's new electric motors.

These robots are highly customizable and can be adapted to almost any tabletop competition.

Components
The club allows members to mix and match any pieces of hardware or electronics they want, to better fit their needs. The following is a list of all known working hardware and electronic components that work well with our custom chasis.


 * Logic
 * Arduino Microcontroller
 * Locomotion
 * Servos (Generic continuous servo)
 * DC Gearhead Robot Motor (New electric motor)
 * Electric Motor Controller (If using motors)
 * Pololu TReX Jr Motor Controller
 * Servo Controller (If using servos)
 * Pololu Micro Serial Servo Controller
 * Wheel Encoders
 * DC Gearhead Robot Motor has built-in wheel encoders
 * WW Servo Encoder (Old)
 * Power
 * Use any battery source you want!
 * LiPo is commonly used, so are the "red bricks"
 * Sensors
 * Range Finders
 * Light Detection
 * Bump Sensor
 * Anything else!

Rules
Do not use hot glue on the chassis or drill any new holes into the robots.