Autonomous robot required to locate itself in a prescribed arena and fire ping pong balls into goals lit up with with IR signals. Designed completely from the ground up. Arduino or other microcontroller kits were not used. Hardware and software were custom built, written, and integrated to complete the task.

A voltage regulator on a custom PCB ran the Pic microcontrollor and other integrated components off of a standard 9V battery.

Contact switches and stepper motors gave the robot the ability to locate the arena walls and then place itself in the center for firing.

Compliant spring steel was deflected by a stepper motor and released to fire the ping pong balls.

Custom cam design reduced the power required from the stepper to deflect the compliant trigger.

3D printed hoppers fed the ping pong balls to the compliant trigger with the use of solenoid gates.

Compact, organized circuit design allowed for simple maintenance and modifications.

Quick release mechanism to separate the firing components from the circuitry and power stored on the base.

Photodiodes sensed the IR signals to locate and fire at the goals.