Automatic Moving Cricket Wicket

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THE DEMO: Automatic Cricket Wicket
Swaleh Owais • 10/18/2023 at 07:52 • 0 comments

Made a fun demo of using the robotic cricket wicket. By far, the most fun part of this project was teaching Taiwanese homies to play cricket 🏏
September 28th 2023: I can't make the linear actuator move precisely
Swaleh Owais • 09/28/2023 at 15:35 • 0 comments
It was dumb to use a DC motor for this project. I should have just ponied up the resources for a high speed stepper. My plan was to attach a rotary encoder to the DC motor to accurately measure the number of rotations. This is not easy....
First, I tried using a fancy (and expensive) optical encoder to measure the rotary distance. But this sensor was overkill for my project. It kept on giving me bad values, I assume because I was spinning the encoder too fast. Or because I didn't know how to properly use it!
I switched to a Hall Effect setup because I thought integrating it would be easier. This was generously lent to me by my colleague Louis (thanks bro)!
The Hall Effect sensor came with a rotary disk with 5 magnets for measuring angular velocity. But again, I had an issue with pulses being skipped. I switched to making my own rotary disk with one magnet as I thought that would give more the arduino more time to transition states on the interrupt pin. BUT STILL PULSES ARE BEING SKIPPED!
Some strategies I'll try tomorrow for stopping this are getting rid of all Serial prints and delays in code.
1. Get rid of all serial prints
2. Only do analog/digital write once instead of looping it
3. Get rid of all delays
4. Switch from monitoring change on interrupt to rising
In the mean time, enjoy these videos of the actuator zipping around!
September 15th 2023: Pivot on the linear actuator system
Swaleh Owais • 09/15/2023 at 09:05 • 0 comments

In my initial conception of this project, I planned to drive the wicket back and forth along a length (3m) gantry system. This structure would be made from 2020 extrusion. The bed would slide back and forth via a motorized wheel that's engaged with the ground.

This was a pretty stupid idea. As you can see in the video, the wheel constantly slips on the ground. If I try applying more normal force, the motor slows down considerably.

I had a few different solutions to this problem: pneumatic wheel, chain-driven system, amr wicket :))))

But it turns out the best solution was recycling. A previous team at the Fablab has built a massive 3D printer. Unfortunately, the mighty project had been scrapped and disassembled in the corner before I came. Fortunately, that means there are some LOOOONG linear actuators that need a new home. I whipped together a coupler to connect my motor to the linear actuator and it is really fast!

I am now printing out new motor/sensor mounts for this actuator. My push goal was to have all of the engineering work done by the end of next week. That'll give me enough time to also finish some exciting projects. Hopefully, I can still make that happen with this timeline!
September 9th 2023: First week and the rate is disappointment
Swaleh Owais • 09/08/2023 at 19:05 • 0 comments

I set the following schedule for getting this project done:
-Sept. 4th - 8th:: Finish slider system
-Sept. 11th - 15th:: Finish motor actuator system
-Sept. 18th - 22nd:: Do vision tracking system
-Sept. 25th - 29th:: Make video
My hard deadlines are:
-Finish the cricket wicket build by Oct. 6th
-Finish video by Oct. 14th
Technically, I did get the slider system done this week. But I didn't really do much. My productivity has been hampered by the low quality 3D printers I am using. But more importantly, I am held up by just getting distracted so easily. As a solemn vow, I will not listen to podcasts while working as it prevents me from concentrating!!!
I did find out that the extrusion connects together fairly well so there is no need to buy the longer pieces.
I am going to come in Sunday to try to get a headstart on setting up the motor.
September 3rd 2023: The project begins (it actually began last year)
Swaleh Owais • 09/02/2023 at 20:30 • 0 comments

I want to build a robotic cricket wicket. What is that?
Well first let me explain how cricket works. In the gentlemen's game, a bowler throws a ball as fast as s/he can at a batter. The batter is trying to hit the ball (with his/her bat😲😲😲). If the batter misses, the ball will hit his/her wicket and the batter will be out. What an exciting game!
[Figure: Cricket Diagram - https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Cricket-in-action-Two-sets-of-wickets-placed-at-the-bowlers-and-batsmans-end_fig1_338095459]
Non-commonwealth readers will be shocked to learn that it is extremely difficult for the bowler to hit the batter's wicket. At least it is whenever I bowl 😔😔.
For this reason, I want to build a robotic cricket wicket. This special cricket wicket will automatically move left/right to intercept any pitched ball. The robot will be able to move autonomously using some dollar store CV system.
Why am I building this? Because it will be ****ing cool! Or at least hopefully not cringe! Over the past years, I have been inspired by StuffMadeHere's basketball hoop and I would love to do my own spin on this project for cricket. I actually bought the materials for this project way back in 2022, but I have been procrastinating on actually building the darn thing. In fact, I have carried the materials for the project with me all around the world (literally, I have taken 20m of 2020 extrusuion in my luggage to Toronto, Pasadena, Dubai, Kigali, Boston, and now Taipei).
No more! I am going to finally build this thing. I will post updates on the project every week to ensure I stay focused on finishing the project. To keep progress ticking, I have set a personal deadline to build the robowicket by the end of Cricket World Cup 2023. Stay tuned for results and cringey robots......