Robotics Design Competition

During my junior year at Oklahoma State University, I participated in a robotics design competition consisting of 10 teams of 10 students. Each team was challenged to design a robot capable of depositing ping-pong balls into vertical tubes positioned on a table. At the end of each round, the team whose ball rested at the top of a tube claimed that tube. The most tubes captured won the match.

This led to the teams utilizing a wide variety of loading mechanisma and tube-capping methods. Our team developed a spring-loaded four-bar mechanism that pushed into the tube, compressed a spring, and reliably dispensed balls. The robot was programmed using an Arduino and Python, combining mechanical design with embedded control. To gain an edge over competitors, we added a unique feature no other team used: a cap-removal system. By attaching a high-strength strip of tape to the bottom of our dispenser, the robot could pull off opposing teams’ caps and reclaim contested tubes. This feature also proved capable of removing entire ping pong balls. This innovation allowed our robot to consistently outperformed others, and our team ultimately won first place.