Introducing...
Walter, the Waiter Robot
Walter the WaiterBot is an autonomous food delivery robot that can navigate a restaurant-like environment and deliver plates to customers.
He has a four-bar-actuated tray module that extends upon reaching a destination to serve plates of food to the customer.
The four-bar system is powered by mechanical output and can be swapped out with another module without any rewiring or bolts.
To navigate the environment, Walter uses AprilTags and a reference map to estimate its location in the world. All of Walter’s software is structured as a ROS2 node network with state estimation and navigation components.
Arduino UNOs running custom firmware serve as the bridge between the motors and sensors and the software system, relaying data from one to the other.
This project was made for our Principles of Integrated Engineering class, taken in the fall semester of our sophomore year at Olin College of Engineering. We had a total of 6 weeks to complete this project, which we divided into three sprints.
Team Learning Goals:
- Mechanical: To design and build complex, interesting mechanical systems.
- Electrical: To design a robust power distribution system.
- Firmware: To write custom firmware and firmware libraries in C++.
- Software: To design a software architecture entirely in ROS2.
To see more details, please look around this website!
