This years robot once again utalizes a Raspberry Pi 4 that runs our main program written in C. While the Pi does all the heavy lifting like line following and victim detection, we also employ an Arduino Nano in a Manager-Worker configuration that runs a simple program to control our motors as well as reading out our sensors. Whenever the Pi wants to drive our motors, it sends the according motor speed to the Nano via USB. The same procedure is used when it needs some kind of sensor value were the Nano reads them out and sends back the reading.
In contrast to last year, we now don't use Step Up modules anymore, but instead feed our 12V motors with the 4x 3.7V from our batteries directly using a control loop that monitors the currenty battery voltage and adjusts the PWM duty cicle to clamp the maximum motor voltages to 12V. If we have sparked your interest, feel free to read our TDP and Engineering Journal as well as our Poster. As always, you can find our source code and CAD files at GitHub and all our runs on the YouTube channel.