FINAL - Lecture Portion (5% of class grade)
To receive full credit on the lecture portion of the final you must create a final blog post speaking about the final project/competition of the class.
Your blog post should include the following:
(Be sure to include pictures and/or videos to accompany the following as well)
1. A description of the final competition requirements.
2. Describe how you approached the competition and whether your method worked.
3. Changes that you made to your initial approach.
4. What you learned from the final project.
5. What you would do/change if you had more time to be more competitive in the final project.
6. What things you think you will take with you from this class and how you might apply it in the future.
7. Copy and paste of the Final code you used for your robot.
Your blog post will be graded based on the overall quality and inclusion of the above criteria as well as how in depth you go.
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1. Copied for lab handout
A description of the final competition requirements.
Rules for Fire Fighting Competition
The objective is for the robot to locate and
extinguish the candle in the minimum amount of time. The robot score
is essentially the time (in seconds) required for the robot to locate and
extinguish the candle.
1. A single lit candle is placed
in one of the 4 rooms of the maze. The robot will begin at a starting point and
once the robot begins to move the time will start.
2. There will be 3 rounds in which each
robot is allowed 2 attempts per round to locate and extinguish the candle. The
better of the 2 attempts per round will be counted.
•
Round 1 – You can pick which room you want the candle placed
in.
•
Round 2 – You will be told which room the candle will be
placed at least 15 minutes in ahead of time.
•
Round 3 – The candle will be placed randomly in one of the
rooms.
3. A robot that successfully
extinguishes the candle in more than one round will receive a final score equal
to the average of the times of the successfully completed rounds. Robots that
successfully extinguish the candle three times will be rated higher than robots
with only one or two successful runs, regardless of the run times. A robot that
extinguishes a candle in a higher round will be rated higher than a robot that
extinguishes the candle in a lower round.
4.
There is
also a room factor that is applied to your overall time from start to
extinguishing the candle. You do not need to go into the room to consider it
“explored.” Just driving by its entrance will consider that room explored.
· Candle found in first room explored
——– 1.0 factor
· Candle found in second room explored
—– 0.85 factor
· Candle found in third room explored
——– 0.50 factor
· Candle found in fourth room explored
——- 0.35 factor
5. There is a bonus for returning to the home position after
extinguishing the candle. If a robot can return to within 5 inches of its
starting point, after extinguishing candle, the extinguishing time is
multiplied by a factor of 0.8
6. In any round you elect an arbitrary
start position that is randomly selected, the extinguishing time will be
multiplied by a factor of .8
Rules
1. Robots must be constructed and
programmed using Vex Basic Robotics Kits and all other materials must be
approved by the instructor.
2. Robot maximum size is limited
to 14 inches by 14 inches by 8 inches. No sensor can be higher than 10
inches from ground.
3. The robot must move to within 12
inches of the candle before the robot extinguishes the candle.
4. The robot is not permitted to
“look” over the walls of the maze.
The robot is not permitted to climb over the walls of the
maze. The robot is permitted to touch the walls at any time during the
run (with no penalties).
5. The robot is not permitted to
touch the candle in any way when the candle is lit except with a
designating extinguishing device, otherwise there is a 1.5 times factor
applied. There is no penalty for touching the candle after the candle is
extinguished. The extinguishing device cannot be in operation more than 10
seconds during entire search.
Arena Details
1. Arena is 8ft by 8ft. The walls of
the arena are 12″ +- 1″ in height. The walls are made of 3/8″ mdf. The
floor of the arena will be the default flooring of the classroom (a commercial
floor tile).
2. The maze dimensions and layout are known
prior to the contest. Any dimension may vary by up to an inch of
the labeled value.
3. There is a circle constructed from
black electrical tape on the floor at the fixed home start position. The robot
must be completely inside the start circle, but can be faced in any direction.
4. The candle will be placed at least 3
inches away from any wall. The candle
will not be positioned at the entrance of the room. In all cases, the robot
will be able to enter the room (12 inches minimum) without making contact with
the candle.
5. The height of the lower
portion of the flame is roughly 3
inches from surface.
There will be black lines
of tape at the entrance to the rooms.2. Describe how you approached the competition and whether your method worked. AND
3. Changes that you made to your initial approach.
We approached the competition with a plan. Our methods worked on timing, but the draw back was sensors. Our method is great, but for a perfect world. The logic was all there, but the error was a big result on sensors accuracy. The IR sensor has arbitrary values that changes very dramatically with the light in the room. Shade and even a cover will greatly change the results. The UltraSonic Sensor was a different chapter. The sensor that we had had random numbers occasionally pop up. We switched it out for another ultraSonic Sensor, but after lots of trials and tuning, ir turns out that that sensor was just faulty in inoperational. We installed another UltraSonic Sensor (our 3rd one) and that one worked. It still popped out a few random numbers of error, but it was less common than the initial sensor unit. The encoders worked great, till they somehow got some dirt inside, then errors came out. A smile dust out clean cleared out the sensor. We used to have full power to motors for speed, but we changed the approach by reducing power to the wheels, so there was less wheel slip on the ground surface. The encoders was only as accurate as the wheels having traction on the competition floor, which by the way was a bit slippery.
4. What you learned from the final project.
Lots was learned, especially that robotics competition or even the robotic build is very possible in our homes. The sensors are able to be purchased and even sold in a bulk pack. Each unit is easily programmed with easily accessible and downloadable programs. Coding has been done or you can research and modify others code. Simply making code from scratch has such a deep gratifying experience and a sense of accomplishment. We did our program from scratch and it worked out great as used lots of functions in our approach.
5. What you would do/change if you had more time to be more competitive in the final project
If we had more time, we would have perfected the code. The biggest change would have been the realignment technique. I witnessed a student in our class do it, and it was super impressive and ingenious. The technique was to have the robot move forward, but after every turn, the robot will shortly reverse itself and ram into the wall behind it. The idea is to have the robot be flat against the floor, so that each time the robot moves forwards, the bot will go exactly straight forward. It eliminates the error that accumulates with slippage error on the track surface. I would have implement that kind of alignment technique. It proved impossible to beat when combined with the reduced power sent to the wheels to prevent slippage.
6. What things you think you will take with you from this class and how you might apply it in the future.
I will for sure take programming into a whole new level with complicated functions. Not complicated, but more duplicated functions to command different tasks, makes it a lot simpler than having a giant code block. I think I am actually going to try to invest in a VEX kit. i have used it before many years ago, but I was extremely intimidated by the programming of the device. I built great robots, but severely failed on the programming aspect. It was just then a giant piece and pile of metal parts put together. I think I can actually do it at home now.
7. Copy and paste of the Final code you used for your robot.
1...2....3....Done!
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