Autonomous Sumo Robot

Close-up of the sumo robot with an ultrasonic sensor on the front and an Arduino with wiring stacked on top — the robot up close. an ultrasonic sensor on the front for spotting the opponent, with the arduino and wiring stacked on top.

an autonomous sumo robot built for the UTRA competition, where i led the team. the goal is easy to state and hard to pull off: stay inside the ring, find the opposing robot, and shove it out, all on its own with no remote control.

the brains are an arduino running the navigation stack in C/C++. it runs autonomous pathfinding logic to search the arena and drive at the opponent, using a differential drive setup where each wheel's speed and direction is controlled independently for tight, responsive turning.

for sensing it runs closed-loop feedback from an ultrasonic sensor to spot the opponent and line sensors to catch the ring boundary, so it can chase a target down without driving itself out of bounds.

i modelled the chassis and mechanical parts in solidworks, checking the geometry and assembly constraints before fabricating so the electronics and drivetrain actually fit the body.

The project team at the competition — the team at the competition.

ArduinoC/C++SolidWorksUltrasonic SensorsLine SensorsDifferential Drive