Abstract

The objective of this project is to create an autonomous robotic arm that has the capabilities of
playing air hockey against a human opponent. Using computer vision algorithms, a camera will
detect the puck. The robotic arm receives the coordinates and moves to the position that
corresponds to the trajectory coordinates. Additional features that might be included in future are
a screen for replays and displaying scores, puck return system, and LED strips for lighting
effects.
Our main motivation and purpose for this project is to gain experience with the robotics,
computer vision, hardware design an motion control which might be useful for us in the future as
most of the industries are being automated and moving towards smart technologies rather than
convenitial design

Objectives
The main Objectives are summarized as follows
 Autonomous Robotic Arm
 Visual Object Tracking
 Accurate Trajectory Prediction
The main purpose of the project is to develop a multifunction robot which could be used for productive
as well as gaming purpose. The primary focus of the project is onto developing a computer striker able
to defend attack the moving puck and prevent the human player from scoring. Further more the design
of the power supply would also be part of the project to be able to power our robot uninterrupted.

The secondary objective of this project is to develop a moving pen which would help user to write in
different fonts.

Description of the Project

With the advancement of the gaming interest of teens and even the adults and the introduction of
gaming zones all over the country we have decided to take a step and introduce our idea in the market
by developing an air hockey table equipped with the air hockey robotic arm which will challenge the
other player to beat it and win the game.

The project is divided into two parts.

The first part will cover building a wooden air hockey table while the second part is the main
implementation which will be focused on building the robotic arm capable of defending and moving in x
and y axis.

Furthermore the robotic arm with the help of the microcontroller will be equipped to perfomthe
fnctions as follows

 Puck Return to the other player

  Visual Effects
 Visual Tracking

Materials
AIR HOCKEY TABLE

 Wood thread screws

 Metric thread screw
 Wood boards
 Solid wood slats
 hot glue gun
 EVA foam
 Drill and drill bits 1mm and 1.5mm
 -Jigsaw (or marquetry saw) to open fan holes

Robotic Arm

 Rasberry pi
 3 A4988 Drivers with heatsinks
 12v fan for electronics cooling
 3 NEMA17 stepper motors 48N-cm
 Motor cable and connectors
 Five meters belt
 Stainless Steel rods 46cm (1 meter steel rod and cut)
Why choose Rasp Pi
The Rasp Pi is open hardware, with the exception of primary chip on it, Broadcom SoC. Which runs
the main components like Graphics, Memory and USB controller, etc. The Rasp Pi is designed for
Linux operating systems and now many of the other Operating Systems have been optimized for it
like Raspbian and Windows IoT.

Rasp Pi 3 B looks like:

Below are some specifications of Rasp Pi Model 3 B.

SoC Broadcom BCM2837

CPU 4× ARM Cortex-A53, 1.2GHz
GPU Broadcom VideoCore IV
RAM 1GB LPDDR2 (900 MHz)
Networking 10/100 Ethernet, 2.4GHz 802.11n wireless
Bluetooth Bluetooth 4.1 Classic, Bluetooth Low Energy
Storage microSD
GPIO 40-pin header, populated
Ports HDMI, 3.5mm analogue audio-video jack, 4×
USB 2.0, Ethernet, Camera Serial Interface
(CSI), Display Serial Interface (DSI)

According to benchmark scores, Rasp Pi 3 B compared to previous models is faster, reliable

and cost effective. Although is uses slightly more power but has a great output.
Why we chose Rasp Pi is because it supports faster computing then Arduino. For a better
video processing we need a stronger GPU which in case of Arduino is not possible. Secondly Rasp Pi
has more libraries available for video processing then Arduino e.g. OpenCV (fully supported).
Another reason why we chose it because it supports other programming languages as well e.g.
Python, Mathematica, Java and Scratch including C where Arduino only supports C. It is fully
customizable to end user’s needs.
 Block Diagram
Let’s see the implementation of basic idea of Internet of Things used in AHR.

Initiate

Capture
Video
Input

Resize
Captured
Input

Get Spatial
Moments
Improvements

After achieving the intial objectivties we wish to modify our design to enable it to perform more
functions making it versatile and more useful.

Hance here are the ideas that we wish to make a part of the improvement section

 add a two player robot

 interactive screen to display playing guidllines and time limit
 add a text writer that can be controlled in real time in order
 Interactive Drawings
 Addind Bluetooth module to the robot to control it with an app