BasketBallBot: Developing an intelligent controls teaching platform using LabView, MATLAB, and Arduino

Fuzzy logic seeks to express human modes of reasoning and decision making in a mathematical form. This is evident in its terminology such as “linguistic variables” defined over a “universe of discourse”. By taking human expressions such as “very high” or “pretty cold” and defining them in a mathematical context, expert operator knowledge can be transferred from verbal descriptions into automated control algorithms regardless of the operator's familiarity with control systems. Because fuzzy logic is designed to be easily comparable with human thought, it makes an excellent first exposure to control systems concepts to high school and undergraduate students. This project demonstrates how a complete fuzzy inference system can be constructed using educational tools already in the hands of high school students throughout the country through the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) competitions. This work combines data from several sensors (encoders, camera vision and ultrasonic ranging) to control a robot to aim and shoot a basketball through a hoop.