Robotics+Competitions

=FULL SPEED AHEAD:= 1. The left wheel spun twice. 2. Motor C spun. 3. It spun the wheel in a forwards direction. 4. Yes. 5. No. 6. It is needed so that the right wheel will also spin and allow the robot to move forwards. 7. We didn't tell the robot exactly where to stop so instead of braking, it slowed to a stop after 720 degrees. 8. Downloading a program puts it in the robot, running a program makes the robot carry out the actions 9. B 10. The Motor Command blocks tell the motors plugged into B and C to start turning. The Wait blocks tell the motors to wait until they turn 720 degrees before doing the next action. The Motor Stop blocks tell motors B and C to stop turning. 11. a) The motor command blocks told it to actually turn but the wait for block told it to turn 2 rotations before stopping. b) Change the wait for block to a longer distance c) You just have to change the wait for block to turn 1440 degrees instead of 720 12. The right wheel would not run and the robot would spin again. You would have to change any blocks labeled B to A 13. It would roll forwards for two rotations and then stop 14. Even though it says wait 1440 degrees it would only turn 720 degrees because that is all it's told to do. 15. The only difference is that I told the Motor and Wait blocks to detect backwards motion 16. No, on the return trip, it rotated much longer than expected. 17. So it would track from the point that it starts moving backwards rather than the point that it started from 18. Whenever you need to reverse direction in some way.

=RIGHT FACE:= 1. The robot spun in place 2. Motor C; the left motor 3. Motor C spun forwards, Motor B stayed in place 4. Its right. 5. About a half turn 6. The right wheel 7. The Motor Command blocks tell the C motor to spin while the B motor stays in place. The Wait For Block tells the motors to wait fro 720 degrees before the next block. The Motor Stop blocks tell both motors to stop rotating immediately. 8. a) No because it could've turned left or right. b) 3/4 of a turn c) 1/4 of a turn 9. a) Smaller wheels will mean that it won't rotate as far b) Yes, even surfaces help it turn better 10. a) Yes you could b) Okay 11) Motor C is told to stop and Motor B is told to go forwards, the wait for block is also set to wait for motor B to turn 720 degrees 12) Yes, you would just have to tell motor C to turn backwards and motor B to stay still 13) A swing turn turns around the wheel that is not movie; it makes an arc. A point turn turns in place around the center of the rear axle. 14) a) Swing turns are helpful for getting around objects. b) Point turns are for making instant turns like around a corner

=CLAP ON; CLAP OFF:= 1) 10% 2) 100% 3) 55% 4) The first two sound blocks tell the robot to start running when it hears a sound above the threshold, the motor blocks tell the motors to start running. Then when the second two sound blocks sense another sound above the threshold, it tells the motor stop blocks to activate which tell the motors to stop turning. 5) The wait for clap function tells the motors to wait for a sound to start running a) The two blocks that do this are the block that senses a sound above the threshold, and the block that senses when the sound returns to under the threshold b) With only one block that senses sounds above the threshold, it ends up hearing the sound "twice" and tries to make the robot stop at the same time 6) The threshold tells it to activate when it hears a sound above or below it. If you set it higher, it would require a louder sound to start and if you set it lower, it would be a quieter sound needed. 7) To make sure that it activates when you clap 8) Other sounds trigger it, it senses the volume of a sound, not a specific sound. 9) She would have to tell the robot to start when it hears the door slam, and include the second wait for block which senses when the sound returns below the threshold before starting movement. The problem is that it could be set off by ant loud noise, not just the door slamming. 10) It could sit by the light and when the sound passes the threshold it would turn the lights out, when it returned under the threshold, it would turn them back on. 11) It allowed the robot to be repeatedly started and stopped by clapping without having to restart the program 12) It will run as many times as you want

=FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES:= 1) It's looking for the left edge of the dark line 2) It should turn to the right 3) It should turn left 4) 35% 5) Dark, light, light, light 6) light, light, dark, dark 7) Turn left, the rest turn right 8) When it senses light it will turn to the right, when it senses dark it will turn to the left 9) There could be more light in the room which would mess with the threshold value of the sensor 10) It would still follow the program, the only difference would be that it would be on the right side of the line instead of the left. 11) yes it is important, if it is raised it could end up sensing light and dark at the same time, doing nothing. If you move it to the back it would still run the same. 12) Because you switched the directions that the robot turns when detecting the light values. 13) Never.

=OBSTACLE DETECTION:= 1) It went forwards until it hit an object, then it stopped 2) The touch sensor was pushed in by the wall it hit 3) It could prevent the robot from breaking itself or from running into danger 4) It stops immediately but you don't always want it to hit something that could break 5) It stopped when it go too close to the object 6) Something got too close to the ultrasonic sensor 7) 50 cm 8) It stops without hitting an object, but it stops and the object could move out of the way and it wouldn't know 9) It is a little less reliable 10) a) One is set up for a touch sensor, the other for an ultrasonic sensor b) With the touch sensor, the robot actually has to hit an object to stop 11) This way it won't break anything but then again, the object could move out of the way before the robot would have ever gotten to it. 12) a) The push sensor only has two settings, there is no reason to need to set a threshold value b) As you change the threshold value, the robot will stop closer or further away from objects depending on which way you move the threshold 13) a) It could be used to pick up objects, push objects, or even fire something when it is pushed b) If the robot needs to grab something when it touches it, it would be good to have a touch sensor in the hand. If it needs to push something it can be told to put more power forwards when it touches something c) If something fragile was involved or you needed to stop BEFORE hitting an object, a touch sensor wouldn't work 14) a) If you need to stop before hitting an object, if you need the robot to turn around obstacles, or if it is working with people and needs to interact with them b) No not always, it wouldn't be able to detect a sudden drop, like a cliff c) If you have a tractor going around a field d) If you need to push something or are working in the dark 15) If the object was making a sound, you could use the sound sensor to detect it. 16) ?????????? 17) A very slight difference 18) Hard objects, they provide a more stable surface for the ultrasonic waves to reflect off of 19) A graduated cylinder 20) No 21) Yes it does.

=GET IN GEAR= 1) Yes it did 2) Because increasing motor power increases how quickly the motor rotates 3) Yes because you get more wheel rotations per motor rotations 4) It got where it was going mush quicker and even went further than it used to 5) It went slower than the last run with the gears reversed 6) Changing the motor power and the gear ratio 7) Decrease the motor power and the gear ratio 8) You put the larger gear on the motor 9) a) Same speed because the ration is the same b) Much slower, the smaller gear is on the motor c) Because you change the ration of the teeth meshing d) If the motor gear has more teeth, it will go faster. Less teeth mean it will go slower. The same number mean it will go the same speed 10) a) The wheel had more rotations per motor rotations b) The wheel had less rotations per motor rotations c) No 11) a) The largest gear on the motor with the smallest gear on the wheels b) Smallest gear on the motors and biggest gear on wheels c) Smallest gear on motors and biggest gear on wheels d) Largest gears in motors and smallest gears on wheels 12) If the car is pulling a trailer it will want more power so it will switch to a lower gear, where if it wants more speed it will switch to a higher gear to allow more rotations

=ROBOT COMPETITIONS LOG BOOKS= 11/9 Today we managed to dismantle our previous creations and start the work on out first competition robot. Andrew designed the "claw" mechanism which we will use as a scoop or plow for the second competition. I started putting together the actual body of the robot. Currently the wheels are mounted on the side of the NXT brick, but that will have to change in order for it to actually move. I still have to work on figuring out how to mount and program the light sensor so it will track the line it needs to follow.

11/12

11/14: Competition day Today is the first competition, the line tracking comp. After three days of building I think our robot is ready fr this competition, however it might not be the fastest. I don;t think it will be the slowest though so I'm hoping it does well. This is the track we need to follow, it's a lot longer than any other track any of the robots have had to follow before. There is also one crazy turn that is much more than 30 degrees Donald went first and their robot spun in a circle and didn't go anywhere, after a second try it started following the line pretty well and the just started spinning again. At their third try their robot did much better and finished in 1:21 Next went Tyler's team, their robot had treads and ended up going off the path but farther than Donald's. On their second try they managed to get stuck on the bumps After them went Nick and Joe's robot, their robot made it to the crazy turn, and went off, but they put it back on and let it run to the finish. With a time of 55s We went next and ended up finishing in 2:01 Brett's robot managed to do it in 1:06 after skipping half the course Hunter went next and his robot didn't go anywhere, He went for a second try and the robot didn't move Josiah went next and his robot turned around and went backwards, after a second try he still didnt go anywhere

11/27/12 Today we did a majority of our programming for the block moving competition. We measured all of the distances the robot would have to cover using the option on the robot that shows you how many rotations the wheel do to cover a certain distance. The actual programming is very tedious and requires very minor tweaks and changes and multiple tries and failures. We ended up figuring out the the robot does better or worse depending on if we clean the wheels. Cleaning the wheels helps the robot execute the program more accurately. This seems like a really dumb reason as to why it wouldn't work but at least it works.

11/28/12 This is the last day of programming before the competition and I half to say, we've reached our programming capabilities. At this point we tried looping the program so that we could save ourselves some time but we could not get the looping to work right, the robot was just too unpredictable in the way it moved and executed the program that there was no way to place blocks in a way that it could retrieve more than one. Not to mention the trouble that comes from trying to program an accurate point turn. That was probably the biggest reason for our failure, as the robot would never do it the same way twice. After much discussion and debate, Andrew and I have decided that we have programmed as much as we can and we're now letting the robot charge for tomorrow

11/29/12- Competition #2 Today is competition day, the robots need to cover a one meter gap and grab a block and bring it back. Whoever can grab the most blocks in three minutes wins First went Brett and the Pardoes, their robot managed to grab 5 blocks Next went Devin and Tyler, their robot grabbed 3 blocks After them went Hunter's robot, it grabbed 1 block Next, Josiah's robot went and it grabbed no blocks We went next and grabbed 1 block, tying for third After us went Nick's robot, and it also grabbed 1 block Lastly went Donald's robot, it grabbed 3 blocks

Competition Reflection: As the first competition set, I think this was a great learning experience. We had a lot of trouble with programming the second competition when it came to getting a second block. The first competition was no problem programming and we did fairly well in that competition. For the next set we are going to have to spend more time designing the robot itself and keeping all aspects of the program in mind while doing so.

11/30/12 Today is the first day of the next competition cycle. We have to build a robot that can pull another robot while line tracking and throw a ball as far as possible. This seems like it will be a huge challenge but I think that we'll be able to design and program a robot that can do it.

12/6/12 Today is competition for the tug of war First up was Brett vs Devin; Bretts robot was gigantic and pulled the other team off with some struggle Second was Us vs Nick and Joe, we got destroyed. Third was Brett vs Donald; Brett won again Fourth was Hunter vs Josiah; Hunter lost even worse than we did Next was Brett vs Joe and Nick; As usual, Brett won We lost our next match and so did Hunter. When Donalds team faced Devins, HDTV won, whoever that is Brett went up against Josiah and in the end Brett defended his winning streak After that we went again three times and won twice In the end we placed in 5th

REFLECTION: This competition cycle is going to be a very stressful one, that much I can already tell. Building the robot was a huge hassle as the first attempt ended in disaster. The entire thing fell apart when I tried to run it. I figured out that the problem was that there needed to be one "block" of space between the motors for the robot to line up correctly. After fixing that, mounting the brick became much easier. The next challenge was trying to mount the catapult, which took almost two days in itself. The rest of the building days ended up consisting of modifications being made to the catapult

12/7/12 Today was the first day to make our modifications for the next competition. The robot has to be able to throw a ball as far as it can. We began our modifications on the catapult itself. I had to find a way to "push" the gears together more so that they wouldn't grind and they would actually catch and swing the arm upward.

12/10/12 Our "minor" modifications included expanding the back of the vehicle along with changing the direction of the catapult. The problem was that the catapult could throw the ball with a decent amount of force, but it kept hitting the top of the robot. Lengthening the arm of the catapult made it swing slower and the arm couldn't throw the ball. Miller decided to take over the effort for raising and mounting the catapult in the new direction, which is fine with me since I spent many stressful days putting together the rest of the robot.

12/12/12 Today is the next competition day. Josiah- 153 Donald- 61 Us- 47 Nick and Joe- 74 Brett and Pardoes- 53 Tyler- 47 Hunter- 95 We ended up tying for last, which kinds sucks, but at the same time I'm just glad that the catapult managed to go forwards.

REFLECTION: If there's one thing I learned from this competition, it's that robotic catapults suck. Building a catapult that could successfully launch a ball a measurable distance was much more of a hassle than it needed to be. Modifications needed to be constantly made and when they were made, it usually led to new modifications and eventually just a redesigning of the entire catapult system. I don't know if it's just me or if it's the robot itself. I always had trouble with the designs or my designs wouldn't work, but Miller could easily come up with something and make it work. So for the next competition I think I'm going to let him make more designs and modifications.

12/13/12 Today is the first day to work on the maze competition. I think this one will prove to be difficult, especially since I did some research and it seems that any program made for navigating a maze runs on a C++ based program, not the simple programming system that we use. From listening to what others are saying around the room, it seems like everyone else is having the same problem coming up with program ideas. I've decided that the robot needs to be very small so that it can go faster and navigate the turns easier. This part shouldn't be too hard, as it literally just needs to drive, so there's no other fancy add-ons that it needs to do this.

12/17/12 Miller found a design online from the NXT tutorial site which we used earlier for our robot. It's a fairly simple little thing with only three wheels. Two are hooked up to motors to drive the robot, and the third is in the back and will swing around as the robot turns, this allows the robot to turn much easier and with more accuracy. I think this design could give us an edge in the competition seeing how everybody else has a fairly large robot.

12/20/12- Competition Day Today we participate in the Maze competition for our robots. I think our robot will do fairly well in the competition since ours is completely interactive with the fact that we tell it what to do rather than relying on the ultrasonic sensor. Brett and Pardoes - DNF/ 50s/ Donald - 3:53/ 1:17/ ? Devin and Tyler- DNF/ 2:17 Hunter and Casey- 4:20/ DNF Josiah and Andy- DNF/ 1;40/ 2:06 Us - 2:20/ 2:51 Nick and Joe- 2:18/ DNF Overall, we came in 6th place.

1/3/13 Today we start the building for the next competition. The next competition is a sumo match. The robots need to try and push the other robot out of the ring while it stays in the ring. I think this competition could be fairly difficult, seeing as how this sort of robot fighting could be very hard to program. I think the competition will come down to how much weight the robot has and how much power it can produce with its motors. The motors can only put out so much power, so if everyone has their robots beefed up to maximum power, it might just come down to who's battery dies first or who has a better program.

1/4/13 I've figured out what we're going to use as our robot. When searching online I found a site that had a bunch of different NXT robots for various situations. One of these designs was a small "Sumo Bot" which I built. We're going to modify it heavily so that it has more weight and power to it. The basic design had a slanted plow on the front to push other objects which I think will come in handy in the competition. It can stop other robots from getting underneath us and rendering us helpless.

1/7/13 Today we're continuing with the modifications to the robot. We used the remaining gears that we didn't use in the wheel system to create a sort of blocking mechanism for the wheels. In theory it will stop other people from hitting our wheels or messing up our gearing system. I also think that they can be used to latch onto other robots or tear into their wheels if needed. We also took the spare large tires and made a sort of weight to put on the back of the robot. It adds a considerable amount of weight to the vehicle and also provides protection for the back of the vehicle. What I still need to work on is a way to cover the sides so they are not as vulnerable.

1/8/13 The modifications continue onto the third day of building. I realized that the wheels would buckle under the weight of the robot so we added a "fifth" wheel in the center of the robot underneath the plow. It provides stabilization for the robot and also helps function as additional weight and traction. We also put an addition onto the plow. We made a sort of "scoop" to be used as a ramp for the other robots. In theory it will get under the other robots and as our robot will push forward, they will be forced onto the plow and we can carry them off the ring itself.

1/9/13 Currently we are in the programing phase of the competition. I attached a light sensor on the top of the robot and I planned to wave a yard stick over the sensor when I wanted it to turn. Unfortunately, that is considered too much interaction with the robot. I don't really see how as other people have used yard sticks before, and I'm using the light sensor for what it is designed to do. It seems that I will just have to figure out a new program within the next day so that we can still compete

1/10/13 I am trying to put together a new program using a sound sensor in place of the light sensor. The way it should work is that it will move forwards until it hears a clap and then it will start to spin until it hears another clap and move forwards, looping the program. Unfortunately, it isn't working exactly how it is supposed to. During the first loop of the program it works fine, but as soon as it reverts back to the beginning and I clap again, the robot will just lurch a bit to the left and continue forwards. This is a big problem since the competition is tomorrow.

1/11/13-1/14/13: COMPETITION DAY Today we begin the competition for the sumo wrestling contests. I managed to fix my program at the last minute. It turns out I didn't set one of the sound sensors to detect port 4. I think we have a fairly good chance looking at the other robots, as they are mostly smaller, with less weight. In the first competition, we managed to beat out Brett and the Pardoes, which surprised me since their robot was gigantic and if you went head on, there was no stopping it, so our robot ended up getting it from the side. At the end of the round-robin style competition we tied for third place. Later we did an actual bracket tournament based on the results of the first competition. In this we placed third again.



REFLECTION: As this was the final competition I'm happy to say that this was the best we did in any of the robotic competitions. We had little to no trouble with the actual building of the robot which usually gives us a lot of grief. We also had a decent program that worked well in this competition. It allowed us to circle around the other robots which usually left their sides or backs unprotected, allowing us to latch on and push them off. I think this was a good way to finish out the class.