Design of a Ball Handling Mechanism for Robocup

Abstract

This report describes the design, realization and testing of a ball handling mechanism for Tech United, the Robocup team of the Technische Universiteit Eindhoven. The goal of this project is to enable the robot to receive the ball and to dribble with the ball. Various principles for stopping the ball and dribbling with the ball are evaluated and the concept that uses two wheels attached to levers is chosen. The levers are used to exert a force on the ball to get good grip on the ball. The ball can be catched by clamping it between these two levers. A prototype of the designed ball handling concept was realized. After mechanical and electrical implementation on a TURTLE robot a PI feedback controller has been designed and tested. The performance of the prototype is very promising. The ball stays in contact with the robot when driving forwards, backwards and when braking.