My final project has been completed. I use OpenCV to track the ball by first applying a binary mask of the color of the target. Then, I enclose the biggest blob with a circle and find the center. If the center is to the left of the screen, the robot will turn to the left. If it is on the right, the robot will turn to the right. If the ball disappears from the camera’s field of vision, it will turn in the last detected direction.
My third milestone was getting OpenCV to track a ball. The problem turned out to be with the test code that was out of date. Also, the original camera module was damaged. Once that was replaced, it worked great. All I have to do next is to out together all the parts of my project.
My second milestone was getting the ultrasonic sensors to return input. Each sensor has 4 pins. 2 for power (+/-) , one for the trigger, and one for the ultrasonic echo. You can then find the time in between the trigger and echo to see how far away an object is.
For my next milestones, I need to make the ultrasonic sensors work and get OpenCV/Pi Camera to work.
For my first milestone, I successfully controlled the motors with a H-bridge and Raspberry Pi. The H-bridge works by taking 3 inputs per motor from the raspberry pi. The first one controls speed, and the second and third control direction. For power, I needed a DC supplier because the H-bridge required ~15 V.
For my starter project, I made the Theremin. A Theremin is an electronic instrument that creates sound based on the distance from the wire to the player’s hands. When you put your hand near the Theremin, it completes an inductance-capacitance circuit. The closer your hand is to the wire, the higher the frequency of oscillations are, and the higher the pitch of the note is. In the making of this project, I learned about all of the electronic parts. For example, I learned what a resistor, capacitor, switch, timer, piezo, and diode was and how they work. I had lots of fun soldering and assembling the parts.