SnapFire

Inspiration

We are always late for school in the mornings. Whenever we set an alarm, it always seem to fly past our heads. So we wanted to create a product that would help us get to school on time by snapping us awake with something that wouldn't miss our face, such as a dart. Thus the creation of SnapFire.

What it does

It utilizes an automatic loading tension system, a raspberry pi, motors scavenged from a fallen roomba, and camera vision. It will use OpenCV through the raspberry pi camera to detect the person's face to determine the person's location. With these values the SnapFire will adjust itself to hit the sleeping person.

How we built it

We utilized 3dprinting, cardboard and some motor parts we took from a broken Roomba. We cadded the motor mount in cad and used that as our main base frame. Then we 3dprinted motor mount hubs to attach the gear of the motors to the entire structure, fixing everything into place with a copious amount of cardboard and duct tape. Finally, we had to code and debug to make it working reliably.

Challenges we ran into

Creating our own dart launcher as getting the flywheel to reliably shoot darts was incredibly difficult. It required the correct tensioning between the dart and the wheel. As well as a high enough RPM motor to shoot it with distance. Getting OpenCV to work on a raspberry pi was stressful. Cable managing was difficult since it had multiple degrees of freedom and there was a high chance that the wires were going to get caught.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of being able to use a raspberry pi to control the entire system. We are happy that we have a working system that is reliable compared to the amount of time given. This was the first time we created a machine for a project, it was unbelievably fun at times when we all shouted in joy when something worked the way we envisioned. Other times, it was chaotic but we all still had fun teasing each other and have gotten closer as friends.

What we learned

We learned how to disassemble a machine such as a Roomba. We controlled multiple motors with the raspberry pi and implemented a vision system. We learned how to use computer aided design software such as OnShape to help us design our idea. We also utilized 3dprinting to add structural support to our project and to create gears to connect multiple systems together that usually wouldn't mesh. One of the most important lessons we've learnt is that once someone hits the stacks for a "nap", they're out till the next morning.

What's next for SnapFire

SnapFire is hungry for more! We are planning to attach the entire system onto a drone so that no matter where you are, you won't sleep in. We are also planning on improving the automatic feeder to be more reliable and accurate. In addition, to strengthen the launcher mechanism, we had plans to add another flywheel. With a drone and improved parts, SnapFire would soar to greater heights.