Retrieval Vehicle V1

This project was a proof of concept that I wanted to test out before I fully invested my time in working on a full version that was production ready. I began with using parts that I already had and scrapped together a simple platform that could hold all the components together. Using a simple motor driver, buck converters, a raspberry pi, a simple pc webcam and a servo I was able to make the vehicle. This process was simple since I started this project slightly after the completion of my SLAM project. 

After testing that the systems were functional, I was assisted by my friend in writing simple code. Using simple visual object recognition software and some libraries of tennis balls we were able to implement a loop for capturing said balls and locking them with the servo arm. Unfortunately due to the low quality of parts, I was unable to make the vehicle work reliably, after considering different ball caster positions and motor design, I decided that it would be better to design a new platform with more reliable parts and motor drivers.