5-9 Today I was supposed to get a remote so I could start testing my robot on the Sumo Table... but that didn't work. At least I have my robot built. recommend
... dude to a tremendous pain, known as the "wisdom tooth", I was absent from class.
oh, and I gave a tour to the people from the Invisible Children organization.
Today I practiced sumo wrestling Dax. I have some problems. I can't go very fast because of the gearing on my robot. I can push him if he stays still, but I can't catch him or get out of the way if he tries to flip me.
I think that if I'm just super active and really annoying that my robot can win. I'll just keep spinning, and keep going around my opponents robot. Yep, I really should have thought of a better design. Dax's is prettty sweet with the flipping thing.
I watched Buffy The Vampire Slayer! Other people seemed to be having a good time playing with their robots, and I have 4th quarteritis....
Junior River Rafting Trip!
And today we battle....
I didn't win anything! :( people kept flipping me. Like I said earlier, I should have put more consideration into the design of my robot. If I was lower to the ground it might have turned out better for my center of gravity. Also... I was forgetting which way was forward and side... I didn't drive my robot very well. Oh dear, it was fun but I'm looking forward to next year!
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Rope Climb
The objective of this task was to have the NXT climb up a rope on a 45 degree slope and climb back down in 60 seconds.
My original plan was to use a sort of Batman tool and wind up a seprate rope and have my robot use the othe rope as something to just hang on. But I wasn't too keen on designing that sort of tool, so I just coppied what everyone else was doing and so I ended up having my rope in between two wheels and the wheels just turned and moved my NXT up the rope. And theennnn, my robot made a smashing end with dislocatnig the motor from the NXT and effortlessly slid down the rope.
Some issues I had were the wheels getting a grip on the rope. I had to pry a tiny space between the tires so they could have traction.
Center of gravity... I had to take off my touch sensor because it was messing with my balance. I couldn't go up the rope because one side was heavier. The blance of the robot it important. If the robot is doing a task that requires it to have symmetry then it's important to make sure the balance is equal.
My original plan was to use a sort of Batman tool and wind up a seprate rope and have my robot use the othe rope as something to just hang on. But I wasn't too keen on designing that sort of tool, so I just coppied what everyone else was doing and so I ended up having my rope in between two wheels and the wheels just turned and moved my NXT up the rope. And theennnn, my robot made a smashing end with dislocatnig the motor from the NXT and effortlessly slid down the rope.
Some issues I had were the wheels getting a grip on the rope. I had to pry a tiny space between the tires so they could have traction.
Center of gravity... I had to take off my touch sensor because it was messing with my balance. I couldn't go up the rope because one side was heavier. The blance of the robot it important. If the robot is doing a task that requires it to have symmetry then it's important to make sure the balance is equal.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Decisions Assignment #12
The goal of this activity was to Create a program that would randomly select a course of action when it came within 25 cm of an object. I had to change my switch block from 'flat' view to 'tab' view and each tab would perform a different movement.
The random block chooses a number between 0-3.
Pseudo-coding: Move block: go forward
Loop, ultrasonic sensor
Random block connected to a tab switch block.
First tab- go backwards one rotation and then turn left and continue moving.
Second tab- go backwards one rotation and then turn right and continue moving.
Third tab- turn left and continue moving.
Fourth tab- turn right and continue moving.
All inside one giant loop
I didn't have any problems with this program... probably because It isn't really performing a task.
The random block chooses a number between 0-3.
Pseudo-coding: Move block: go forward
Loop, ultrasonic sensor
Random block connected to a tab switch block.
First tab- go backwards one rotation and then turn left and continue moving.
Second tab- go backwards one rotation and then turn right and continue moving.
Third tab- turn left and continue moving.
Fourth tab- turn right and continue moving.
All inside one giant loop
I didn't have any problems with this program... probably because It isn't really performing a task.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Counting
The goal of this activity was to have my robot move past a ball placed on a little pipe and have my robot state weather the ball was red or blue. My robot was supposed to keep track of how many red balls it sensed and how many blue balls.
This task was difficult, and when I finally figured it out it just stopped working.
I had to take a light reading of the red ball and a reading of the blue ball and create a range so my robot could tell which color it was sensing.
One problem I had was that the ball counting gods got mad at me and decided to curse me.
The problem with the counting balls lab was reading the balls and displaying what color they were because you either had to pick them up or you had to read them while the robot was running witch was hard because it was never the right thresh hold but if you brought the ball to your robot sometimes missed the ball and just knocked it over i don't think anyone ever did the lab all the way through but people got very close but they had to do it with a very complicated program
Activity/ lab/ project/ name/ date
goal
provide a short description
plan
how are you planning on solving
pseudo-coding of your plan
issues/ problems
what isssues did you encounter and how you solved/ overcame them
Conclusions
Results
What prototypes/ experiments did you try
known problems- how could they be solved
final version of your pseudo-code
This task was difficult, and when I finally figured it out it just stopped working.
I had to take a light reading of the red ball and a reading of the blue ball and create a range so my robot could tell which color it was sensing.
One problem I had was that the ball counting gods got mad at me and decided to curse me.
The problem with the counting balls lab was reading the balls and displaying what color they were because you either had to pick them up or you had to read them while the robot was running witch was hard because it was never the right thresh hold but if you brought the ball to your robot sometimes missed the ball and just knocked it over i don't think anyone ever did the lab all the way through but people got very close but they had to do it with a very complicated program
Activity/ lab/ project/ name/ date
goal
provide a short description
plan
how are you planning on solving
pseudo-coding of your plan
issues/ problems
what isssues did you encounter and how you solved/ overcame them
Conclusions
Results
What prototypes/ experiments did you try
known problems- how could they be solved
final version of your pseudo-code
Monday, February 28, 2011
Maze
Activity/ lab/ project/ name/ date
goal
provide a short description
plan
how are you planning on solving
pseudo-coding of your plan
issues/ problems
what isssues did you encounter and how you solved/ overcame them
Conclusions
Results
What prototypes/ experiments did you try
known problems- how could they be solved
final version of your pseudo-code
goal
provide a short description
plan
how are you planning on solving
pseudo-coding of your plan
issues/ problems
what isssues did you encounter and how you solved/ overcame them
Conclusions
Results
What prototypes/ experiments did you try
known problems- how could they be solved
final version of your pseudo-code
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Final Challenge: Obstacle Course
Well Today I found out what my final project for robotics will be. I have to program my robot to go around a slanted table and knock off eight bottles of water. Except for this one special bottle of water that needs to be moved to the center of the table. It's worth 10 extra points if it gets to the center of the table. My robot can't be more than 25 cm long. Or is it 23 cm. Which ever. Also I get extra points if my robot does all of this within 60 seconds.
December 8: I don't even remember getting anything done today. I know that I did... but only in theory. I went out to the table where our obstacle course is and I took some readings on the light sensor to make a threshold, but then I came back and I just didn't feel motivated at all. I just want to sleep!!!
December 9: Greg is pissing me off. He's really funny, and he has some good ideas, but he also isn't very realistic. There's this problem with our robot making it over the pencils in the obstacle course, and so he decided that we just need a bigger front wheel. Whatever, if he has an idea why not run with it? But the modification he did with our robot is ridiculous! Now it can't even make it around the table. I almost forgot to mention that we have perfected the art of sensing the edge of the table... kinda. It only falls off sometimes. We made our arm with the light sensor longer, but when it turns corners sometimes it gets a bit too enthusiastic.
December 12: Today I came in to work on my robot tracking the edge of the table. Everything was correct with my programming. The threshold was right (i spent quite a lot of time taking thresholds) Mr. Hillier added these blocks to my line tracking program that would display the reading of the light sensor while the program was running. We were expecting this to tell us what our threshold was (if, for some reason, the thresholds were different when it was going around the table) but something crazy happened. The blocks that were supposed to give us the information to fix the program ended up fixing the program! It was pretty confusing, but hey, it was working so I didn't spend too much time trying to figure it out.
Also, I got my touch sensor to work. Mr. Hillier showed me a design concept that had the mechanism that would knock the bottles off attached to the thing that bumps the touch sensor. One problem I came across was that the thing that touches the sensor was too heavy, and when my robot was shaking and finding the line it would all of a sudden be bumped because of all the weight. I played around with the design and eventually I added two pieces that will stick out and touch the bottle but not accidentally touch the sensor.
I tried to go on to having my second light sensor sense the bottle wrapped in aluminum, but there's a problem with the threshold of the aluminum bottle and the threshold of the bottles wrapped in colored paper. They're too much alike so Mr. Hillier is going to take the bottles intended to be knocked off the table and wrap them in black.
Oh ya, and my robot stops running when it gets to the square of aluminum. It's pretty good at stopping... and falling off corners. I fixed the problem of not being able to go over the pencils, though. Mr. Hillier attached a motor to the back of my robot and that kinda helped but I attached another one on top of that (genius, if I do say so myself) and now there's no problem of it getting stuck... sometimes.
HAPPY DAY! It's been nearly three hours. So much has been accomplished and I can't wait for class tomorrow so I can keep improving my program.
December 13: Today was pretty cool. The robot was just going around, so cool stuff. I think the final will be pretty easy
December 15: When I got to study hall today Greg had put together a program that senses the aluminum bottle and knocks it to the left. We tried putting it in the sequence with everything else but now it doesn't work!
December 16: So today is the final exam. I thought it would be a really easy day since Sunday the robot was practically perfect. But now we're having problems up the yin-yang. Our robot won't make it past the final turn, and it knocks the aluminum bottle to the right. Eventually I just gave up on trying to get the aluminum bottle in the middle, we still passed.
December 8: I don't even remember getting anything done today. I know that I did... but only in theory. I went out to the table where our obstacle course is and I took some readings on the light sensor to make a threshold, but then I came back and I just didn't feel motivated at all. I just want to sleep!!!
December 9: Greg is pissing me off. He's really funny, and he has some good ideas, but he also isn't very realistic. There's this problem with our robot making it over the pencils in the obstacle course, and so he decided that we just need a bigger front wheel. Whatever, if he has an idea why not run with it? But the modification he did with our robot is ridiculous! Now it can't even make it around the table. I almost forgot to mention that we have perfected the art of sensing the edge of the table... kinda. It only falls off sometimes. We made our arm with the light sensor longer, but when it turns corners sometimes it gets a bit too enthusiastic.
December 12: Today I came in to work on my robot tracking the edge of the table. Everything was correct with my programming. The threshold was right (i spent quite a lot of time taking thresholds) Mr. Hillier added these blocks to my line tracking program that would display the reading of the light sensor while the program was running. We were expecting this to tell us what our threshold was (if, for some reason, the thresholds were different when it was going around the table) but something crazy happened. The blocks that were supposed to give us the information to fix the program ended up fixing the program! It was pretty confusing, but hey, it was working so I didn't spend too much time trying to figure it out.
Also, I got my touch sensor to work. Mr. Hillier showed me a design concept that had the mechanism that would knock the bottles off attached to the thing that bumps the touch sensor. One problem I came across was that the thing that touches the sensor was too heavy, and when my robot was shaking and finding the line it would all of a sudden be bumped because of all the weight. I played around with the design and eventually I added two pieces that will stick out and touch the bottle but not accidentally touch the sensor.
I tried to go on to having my second light sensor sense the bottle wrapped in aluminum, but there's a problem with the threshold of the aluminum bottle and the threshold of the bottles wrapped in colored paper. They're too much alike so Mr. Hillier is going to take the bottles intended to be knocked off the table and wrap them in black.
Oh ya, and my robot stops running when it gets to the square of aluminum. It's pretty good at stopping... and falling off corners. I fixed the problem of not being able to go over the pencils, though. Mr. Hillier attached a motor to the back of my robot and that kinda helped but I attached another one on top of that (genius, if I do say so myself) and now there's no problem of it getting stuck... sometimes.
HAPPY DAY! It's been nearly three hours. So much has been accomplished and I can't wait for class tomorrow so I can keep improving my program.
December 13: Today was pretty cool. The robot was just going around, so cool stuff. I think the final will be pretty easy
December 15: When I got to study hall today Greg had put together a program that senses the aluminum bottle and knocks it to the left. We tried putting it in the sequence with everything else but now it doesn't work!
December 16: So today is the final exam. I thought it would be a really easy day since Sunday the robot was practically perfect. But now we're having problems up the yin-yang. Our robot won't make it past the final turn, and it knocks the aluminum bottle to the right. Eventually I just gave up on trying to get the aluminum bottle in the middle, we still passed.
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