For my Unified Robotics I: Actuation (RBE 2001) class, my team and I designed and built “Desdemona,” a custom mobile robot built on a Romi base, engineered to autonomously navigate a field and manipulate payloads on angled rooftops. This project focused on the physical mechanics and power transmission of robotics, requiring deep dives into kinematics, statics, and embedded C/C++ programming. Getting hands-on with the hardware integration was incredibly stimulating, especially when using Free Body Diagrams (FBDs) to calculate and optimize our motor torque, gear ratios, and wheel traction.

Here is a breakdown of Desdemona’s core hardware and systems:

• The Arm Mechanism: We implemented a four-bar linkage driven by a custom two-stage 1:25 gear transmission.
• The Gripper: We built a linear-actuated lower jaw mechanism powered by a lead screw, designed to securely hold solar collector panels.
• Sensor Integration: The robot utilized a suite of sensors, including ultrasonic rangefinders for distance, line followers with PID control for navigation, quadrature encoders for internal motor rotation, and potentiometers to track the gripper jaw’s position.
• The Mission: Desdemona successfully executed an autonomous state-machine routine to line-follow to a staging block, retrieve an old collector from a 25° or 45° roof, and precisely place a new collector.