I'm developing a simple robotic arm for 4H competition. The arm is single axis (it rasies and lowers) and is capable of carrying and dropping a lightweight plastic ball. Currently, this robotics testbed seeks the black line at the end of the game arena and raises its arm. To tell you it's ready for a ball, it beeps - and gives you three seconds to load it. Afterwards, it turns and drives for a few seconds before lowering the arm and dropping off the ball.

The next update will have the robot drive back and forth between two black lines, picking up and delievering balls. Instead of waiting three seconds for you to load a ball, I'll add a switch to the arm so the robot can tell when one has been loaded.

I'm still trying to prefect my IR beacon. I want the robot to determine which end of the arena is the pick up point because of the beacon above it.