Windows IoT: Air Hockey Robot

Welcome to Windows IoT! This Air Hockey robot is running Windows 10 IoT Core on the Intel MinnowBoard Max. It's a demonstration of what you can make with Windows 10 IoT Core, and how you can breath novelty into your classic arcade favorite. Simple building materials, motors, 3D printed parts, and the power of Windows 10.

Find out how to build your own: https://www.hackster.io/windowsiot/ai...

Go to http://www.windowsondevices.com to learn more and join the community of developers building an internet of your things.

Featured Board: Intel MinnowBoard Max

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We can’t wait to see what you make!

Sample built and presented by Daniel Kuo and Jonathan Chiu.
Project inspired by the Air Hockey Robot by JJRobots: http://www.jjrobots.com

Video produced by @IoTMikeT
Music by @IoTMikeT

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Closed Caption:

This is an air hockey robot prototype built
on top of Windows 10 IoT Core.
It demonstrates the flexibility and endless
possibilities of Windows 10 IoT Core and the
Universal Windows Platform.
We wanted to make something with Windows 10
IoT Core that would inspire you to go out
and make something just as amazing or even
better.
The system is controlled by a Minnowboard
Max, which processes data from the sensors
and camera to command the motors to move a
mallet around the table surface.
The robot is made with a variety of laser
cut plastics, 3D printed parts, and modular
aluminum extrusion beams.
For the mechanical design, you can use guiderails
and linear bearings which allows the mallet
to slide along the XY plane.
Stepper motors and timing belts allow you
to precisely control the location of the mallet.
The motors are hooked into stepper motor controllers,
which are then controlled directly by the
Minnowboard Max through GPIO.
The Minnowboard is mounted to the side of
the frame, with sensors, motors, and camera
connected.
In order to detect the puck, we use a special
camera with built in machine vision processing.
The camera looks for color blobs, and detects
the bright green puck on the surface of the table.
The X and Y coordinates a reported to the
MinnowBoard over an SPI bus.
We wrote a Universal Windows app which runs
on the MinnowBoard Max.
It processes the information coming from the
sensors and drives the motors to move the mallet.
There are four different modes in the app.
The first is Game Mode, which configures the
robot to play a game of air hockey against
a human player and also keeps track of the
score.
It has a basic algorithm designed to try to
block shots that are heading towards the goal
and tries to shoot the puck if it sees an
opportunity.
Diagnostic mode lets you see what the robot
sees and how it will react to the puck.
Test mode lets you simulate puck movement
using a mouse or touchscreen.
Mirror mode provides an easy way to test the
motors and the camera tracking simultaneously.
It also helps with calibrating the mallet
and puck position.
This project is just the beginning.
It’s got quite a ways to go before it’ll
win any air hockey tournaments, but that’s
where you come in.
Build it for yourself, improve the design,
and show us what you can do
with Windows 10 IoT Core!
Visit us on www.windowsondevices.com to see
this and many other projects.
We can’t wait to see what you make!