Last Blog Post

I think that my robot did pretty well this time. I finally was able to get one done, and for that Im excited. I think the only problem I had was that the ball could fall out relatively easily if you just flipped it over. But other than that I don't think there was much else I could have made better with more time. Because if I put a bar ontop of that to not let the ball out then the lever that flipped the ball out wouldn't have made it all the way. This would also have caused the switch that doesn't let another ball in would grind against that piece making it wear itself out because the motor wouldn't run. I think the hardest part about this final project was just the coding. If you could build something that would meet all the neccesary requirements then it wasn't that hard. Coding you had to do like 20 different things too and then repeat them.

H-33

I am satisfied with my project today. I feel that my robot performed very well. The only problem I had was that the ball did not fully exit the robot. It got stuck on the tiny edge formed by the LEGO brick at the bottom of my ramp. The bump was so slight that the ball would exit the robot consistently just if it was oriented differently on the desk. I was not too happy with myself that I let this mistake slide. However, I was not really disappointed because my robot performed very well. Overall, I felt that this project was fairly simple and more fun than the other ones because the robot was more fun to build.

H-33

In all, I was fairly satisfied with my final project, especially given the fact that I missed the chance to do much of the work on it I could have. I knew about the trouble my robot had keeping the ball in without running the motors constantly, but did not have time to fix it due to my absences. With those days, I probably would have known of the problem sooner and had a chance to fix it. I think that if I had had the chance to do more tests, I would have discovered the problem with the blue balls and been able to fix it too. I was generally pleased with the project though, since I would have been able to do everything if my original plan would not have destroyed the motors and I had had time to adjust the light sensor's level setting in my program. I was very pleased with one last-minute fix I made, which worked better than expected. I did not plan on the wand that expelled the ball to turn and just rattle around inside the box. Instead I expected it's base to remain rigid and have to stick and work to get in and out of the box. It proved very versatile and did its job perfectly.

H-32

Today I finished just about all the programming for my robot. In the first 25 minutes of class tomorrow I will just have to make it so that it can keep 'eating' and 'digesting' the 'flies'. I will probably just set up a loop. I have my 'happy' song just about done, I just need to change a few notes but then I will be good and ready for this challenge.

Challenge 3

Today I came in after school to work on my robot. I now have it completely finished and all of the requirements completed. I didn't come up with my own song, props to jude for coding the entire happy birthday song, but found that there are "scrolls" that you can use to bring up premade songs. I was able to get my robot to attract the fly, bring it into the trap, close the door at just the right moment. I think its worth nothing that it does it in 5/100ths of seeing the ball and then play the digesting song then flipping the ball out of the trap. It then does all that in reverse completely setting itself up for the process again. I actually tried this 10 times and it worked every time without a hitch, I only stopped because it got boring and was pretty much proof of concept for me anyway. Well I'm really glad that I was able to get this done. Hopefully it will work all the way tomorrow.
Even though I got it to work pretty well, there were a lot of problems I had to get through. The timing was a pretty bad problem. As If I didn't get it right there would be times when one part would grind against another while trying to move. And the other problem I had was when there would be too much wiring, (because I used all the short wires, I had the one 150 mm or cm one left.) So my Dad said that I should wrap those around the base. Instead of doing that I just moved the RCX to the other side and sat it there. And the wiring was troublesome at times, because it matters as to what direction you put it on and then test it and what way you put it if you move something. Because this can completely change the direction of the motors your using.

H-31

Today, I solved one problem, but encountered another. I fixed my issues with the light sensor by testing the light level sensed with and without a ball, and that part of my robot is working now. This allowed me to make my first full test, and as I was doing it, I discovered that my ejection method doesn't work as I expected it to. This should be fairly easy to fix, and I think I will be able to finish tomorrow.

H-30

While I was not here today, and made no progress, I will give an update as to how far along my robot is. The robot is completely built, and the program is almost written, only needing adjustments related to the light sensor. This should be easy, and I expect to finish on time.

H-32

Today, I just about finished my robot. I completed the code for the project requirements, including fixing my song. I also managed to accomplish almost both of the bonuses. I made it so that my robot can keep repeating the process of eating the fly. In addition, my robot is almost able to tell which color of fly it digests. I just need to change a light sensor value in my program, because what I had previously thought to be the median of the two balls' light sensor values was incorrect. I am ready for the final competition.

H-32

I will be cutting it close again for the challenge, but only because I did not read my instructions carefully. Hopefully I will be able to fix my code by tomorrow and get everything running. My views of this challenge have changed since we started. It was definitely easier than building a vehicle, because it didn't require a lot of architectural thought. I really hope I'll be ready for tomorrow.

H-31

Yesterday I started my programming and got a lot done in a class period. I got a good amount of my programming done and I will hopefully be about done with it all after today. All I have left to build on my robot is just something to 'lure' the 'fly', which will only take a few minutes. I am very confident that I will be ready in time.

H-31

I think that I am almost done with my project. So far, I have completed the requirements of the project, except for a few errors in my song. These should not take long to clean up tomorrow. However I still want to do both of the bonuses. I just need to write some more code to accomplish this. Getting the robot to repeat its eating process should be fairly simple. My robot should also be able to determine the color of the ball with some more code too because I built a light sensor into my robot during the construction process. I hope that I can complete both bonuses by the time of the competition.

H-31

Today I began the programming of my robot. I am still constructing at the same time because I have a minor setback. I can't completely guarantee that the ball will not fall out when its turned upside down. Overall I think one more day will be enough time for me to finish my project but it will be cutting it close.

H-31

Yeah well today I didn't really accomplish much unless you consider things that I should have had done on the second day accomplishing anything. My robot does nothing important right now and doesn't even have a top that you can drop the ball in. And I dont know how I am going to fit all the rest of that stuff onto it.

H-30

I have come across a lot of problems and havent gotten any of them really solved at all. And yeah, every time I get a problem fixed another one crops up that delays me even more. Maybe thats why I am so far behind. I dont even have any coherent moving parts that do anything. I dont even have any attractors or anything. And I didn't waste my time on this I tried but had a lot of set backs that kept keeping me from getting much done. Now I have to get more things done in such a short amount of time that I think this will be just another failed project.

H-30

On friday I started the programming for my robot. So far it is going ok, but then again I just started. I got my 'door' to open and close easily and I am now working on how to get my robot to tell when the ball is dropped in to it. Tomorrow I will be just working on my programming and hopefully I will make a lot of progress.

H-30

I overcame a major obstacle in the constructing of my robot. I learned that just one tread was not stable enough to hold the ball. So I attached another tread to my robot which now works as a conveyor. I have also added walls to my robot so it will not fall out. Overall it's going pretty good.

H-30

On Friday I was having some trouble with the coding. I just could not get my code to run correctly, no matter what I tried. When I told Motor C to run for no matter how many seconds, it just would not run. This is going to be a serious problem if I can not get this part of code to run soon as it is critical to my robot. Other than this, the coding of my robot is going pretty well.

H-30

Today, my main problem was getting the robot to sense the ball when I put it in. I have not solved the problem yet, but I tried several ways today. I first tried a slight, simple adjustment to the robot's setup. When that didn't work I tried different levels of light sensed that would set off a switch in the split in my program. I then repeated the process with a different icon, but did no get farther within the class period. I plan to continue trying different icons and different light levels in the program. I hope I do not have to do a major rebuilding of my robot.

H-29

Today, since I thought about it while I was away and kept my robot simple, I finished the first draft of my robot. The robot consists of a box to hold the ball, a light sensor at the bottom of the box, two arms on motors to lock the ball in, and a wheel to kick the ball out, as well as the required lures and RCX. I may have to change it based on tests I do, but I am ready to start writing and testing programs. I know basically what my program must do, but I may have some trouble finding some of the proper icons. If I finish with time to spare, I will want to connect some parts of my robot better.

H-26, 27, and 28

While I was gone, I thought about several aspects of the robot. My original plan involved tipping a box over and dumping the ball out, but I realized that it would be easier and use less space to have a wheel kick the ball out of the box. I also thought about several ways I could make the robot work slightly better, how to keep the ball in the box, and decided that without being able to test the robot, the plan I have was probably my best option for how to complete the project.

H-29

My robot construction continues to be successful. I think I am done with building my robot, however I have a feeling that once I test the code I may need to redo one part of it. Today, I finished building the top opening of my robot where the ball will enter. Then, I worked on making a mechanism to block off this entrance once the ball enters. I used a pair of the yellow, non-brick pieces to close the exit of my robot. This functioned well when I operated it manually, but I will have to see about how the robot handles the gears I have rigged up.

H-29

Today I still was unable to get a lot accomplished because of the problems I was having with like getting the ball to stay in the same spot when I needed it to and also just getting a mechanism to push the ball out of the way. I tried using a wheel, sliding platform, and a conveyer belt. But they didn't work real well so now I will have to find out something else to do. Im really starting to think im not going to have luck with this project even though I want to badly.

H-29

Today I pretty much finished building my robot. All I have left to do is figure out where my light sensor will go and just put it in. Then I will hopefully be able to start my programming tomorrow, which I have been thinking about and I think I have a good idea about how I will program it and it will be pretty simple. I have realized that this is a much more easy challenge than I expected and hopefully I will be ok.

H-28 and H29

over the past two days I have made some progress. I have added another tread to my robot because one was not sufficient enough to actually hold the ball. I have also attached the motors.What I need to do now is make a roof for the robot and make sure the ball cant fall out while it is on the conveyor belt.

H-28

Today I built a lot of my robot. I have a way for the 'fly' or ball to fall out when it is 'digested' but I am still figuring out a few things like how I am going to get the 'fly' to enter and how I will make something close so the 'fly' can't get out. I also have a way for it to detect when the 'fly' is in there but I just need to figure out a way to connect it.

H-26

I am almost finished with building my robot, however I seem to have run into a problem. I can't really find a decent way to close the entrance of my "fly trap". So far, I have tried using a motor, but I haven't been able to situate and position the gears correctly yet. I think that I will probably end up using a rubber band and wheel to rotate a door to block off the exit. I think this will work because it provides more flexibility with the placement of the motor. Hopefully, I am able to complete this tomorrow and then move onto the coding.

10-21-2009

I got another thing on my robot that will be "the flipper" and now it'll flip and let the ball fall through the slot. The only problem I'm having with it is getting it to work well and not continue flipping to much thus making the ball get stuck in the gap. Well I also made it a bit heavier today because it needed to stay stable and be able to flip it upside down without losing pieces and such. And I still have to code and finish building this thing.

10-20-2009

Today I noticed that my conveyor belt wouldn't work consistently and I would have to build something else on it. I now am going to build something else on my robot, probably like a flipper for the ball to fall by. But the only problem I'm going to have is making it all work smoothly enough. Now I will have to begin working on something else. And now I have to make it larger height wise.

H-27

Today I continued to work on building my robot. I have an idea now of what I am going to do for it and hopefully it will all work out. I also have started thinking about how I am going to program my robot to complete the task and I have a pretty good idea about that too. The programming will be hard, but I think the building of the robot is harder.

My progress on the my robot is going very well. I may even possibly be able to finish building my robot tomorrow and then only have the coding to do. Today, I managed to complete a method of detecting the ball and also opening and closing the exit. I used a sliding platform to close off and open up the exit below where the ball rests. The platform can move by a motor turning some gears. Tomorrow, I will build the part of my robot where the ball will enter. I will also have to build the lure.

H-27

This challenge is still going so-so. Im kind of stuck on how I'm going to get the robot to eject the ball after its done. I've been working on a sort of conveyor belt but I'm not sure how to get it to work, so I'm kind of stuck at the moment.

H-25

I think that I definitely will have some bugs to work around and some experimenting to do, but I think that this project will not be as hard as it sounds. I have a plan that I think will work, but it contains somewhat questionable physics, and I will have to test out my ideas. My original plan altered even after the first day, and my robot is very different from my original idea, but it should still fulfill the plan I had originally.
P.S.- I'm sorry this was late, but today was the first time on the trip I had any reliable internet access on anything other than a phone

H-26

Today I just worked on builiding my robot. At first I had no idea what I was going to do or how I was going to build this, but with help from Mr. Bell I got some ideas. I got the 'container' part that will hold the ball done, and am now working on a way for the ball to be pushed out when its done 'digesting'. Today I will continue to build my robot and hopefully it will be ok.

H-26

Today, I only worked on the construction of my robot. So far, I have built a base for the robot, an exit for the ball, and am working on a way to contain the ball while the robot "digests" it. I think that I will use a combination of a platform barring the way to the exit and a sort of gate that closes at the top of my robot, trapping the ball in. I hope to finish the construction of my robot by Thursday, and then use the remaining time up until the competition to work on the code.

H-26

This challenge is going okay for me. Today I have just worked on building the structure. This is going to be relatively hard even though its not a vehicle. I only have a crude concept of what I want my robot to do. But, I made progress today and that is one step towards completion.

I dont know which assignment this is.

Today I worked on building a small conveyer belt for the balls to go on and then reach my light sensor. This project is going pretty well, as long as I can get the rest of this build built. But other than that the coding I am going to try not to make to difficult because the build isn't going to be the most complex. Hopefully I can complete this in least amount of steps possible.

H-25

I think this challenge is going to be much harder than the other three challenges we did. To begin with I have no idea how I am even going to build this yet. Even if I finish building it, I don't even know how I will program this at all. I will give my best efforts but I really have no idea how I will even finish this.

H-25

As opposed to some of the other projects, I think that the hardest aspect of the final project will be the construction of the robot, not the coding. For the coding, I think that I will simply run the motors on timers, using a light sensor to detect when the ball enters the fly trap. I think that I will also be able to use the light sensor to determine the color of the ball for the challenge. As for the construction of the robot, I have started building the bas of the robot and the location where the ball will exit. I am not sure where I will go from here.

H-23

I have so far gotten the wheels and other pieces of my robots mechanics to stick to the sides of the RCX. I have been able to get this done by attaching two of the longer black bars to the side. Although one problem I am having is that I will be doing something else and then when I go to move the Lego piece will fall off of the bars and then require me to stick my fingers in their and attempt to fix it. But every time I do this I tend to make things worse for the robot by breaking it apart more. Need more structual integrity right thar.

H-25

This upcoming challenge I think will be relatively simple. Although there are a lot of things that need to be accomplished, they can all be done without a huge amount of building. I am going to have some trouble with being able to move the "mouth" closed again, but I might just use a sort of reverse thing like they do in traps for small rodents. Its like ..
"in"---> and then once their in its a smaller hole for them to crawl out of thus making it difficult. But truthfully as long as I can get the code together for this. then Im relatively optimistic about this challenge. Although I've been known to fail my own expectations and predictions before.

H-24

The king climber project didn't go very well for me. When I ran my robot on flat ground it worked and moved. But then when I placed it on the steps it made it up the first one or none at all and then just stopped. The first trial didn't work because of the light sensor reflecting underneath the lego and hitting black (making it stop. so i guess at least it did that...) and I think kourtney had this same problem for one of her trial runs too. And the other problem that I had was that I would get it up one step and then there would be this annoying clicking of the gears and one of them was moving faster then the other. This is my fault, as I should have checked for that mechanical problem beforehand.

H-25

This challenge is no doubt the hardest yet, from both the building and programming aspect. It looks so difficult and tedious to build. Also, there is so much to program. Hopefully, If I work hard, I will be able to do well on this challenge. But there is a part of me that isn't so optimistic...

H-24

On the day of the challenge I was not ready. I had all my programming done but I figured out that I did not connect my rotation sensor. Luckily Mr. Bell let us have extra time to do any changes, and I came back after school to fix my robot. I will be ready to run today but I just need to make a quick change to my robot seeing as it measures the distance as a negative number. But I know how to fix that.

H-23

On this day I had my robot completly built and was working on the programming. With help from Mr. Bell I got it almost done, and would have enough time in the next class period to finish it.

H-24

Today, my robot performed exactly as i had planned it to. It was even able to do so on my first attempt. My robot traveled up the stairs and stopped at the black line. Then it displayed the number of centimeters it had traveled. I am confident that I did well on this project. For the next project, I am still unsure of how I am going to accomplish it, but I am starting to get an idea.

Challenge 3

Day 24: I liked this challenge. It was simple, but challenging. The robot itself was fairly easy, once I got it to stay together. What was more difficult was the program. Getting it to run and stop was fairly easy, although there was some trouble that Mr. Bell helped me fix today with getting the sensor to only sense the black strip at the end, but not shadows. The most difficult part of the challenge was getting the robot to calculate how far it had traveled. With Mr. Bell's help though, I figured out the calculations and got the robot to calculate them. I later had to make an altercation when the wheels rotated without moving the robot on the stairs. I probably should have thought more about the light sensor problem, but other than that, I think I did fairly well.

H-24

I liked the idea of this project, i just didn't like how difficult it was. I couldn't even finish building my robot, and it just kept falling apart on me. I didn't even get started on a program either. I know I'm the one that had the most trouble but more than half the class had difficulty as well. Hopefully I'll do better on the next one even though it looks even more difficult...

Challenge 3 Progress

Day 23: I thought that the challenge was today, so I am pretty much done with my robot. I did the best I could to stop any possibility of glitches, and have a solid program and robot that climb the stairs, stop at black, and measure fairly accurately. I think I will do well on the project.

H-23

I was already completely ready for the competition at the start of class today, so I did not have anything more to accomplish with my robot. All that I did was to test my robot a few more times and make sure that it measure accurately and consistently, which it did. I am ready for the competition tomorrow.

H-23

I will most likely not be ready for the competition tomorrow, because my robot is not even half complete, let alone a program. I was so close to finishing my robot this morning, when it all fell apart. It's actually kind of funny how pathetic it turned out. I have been trying hard, but I think this is a lost cause.

H-22

Progress is going well on this project. I finished building my robot and it can climb up the stairs and can now stop at the black legos on the top. What I need to do now is program my robot to be able to measure the distance or whatever it is that we needed to do. (I will check my specifications tomorrow) So with luck I will be almost complete with programming by the end of tomorrow.

Challenge 3 Progress

Day 22: I am very close to ready for the challenge. My robot is built, and is climbing and measuring accurately. I ran into one problem after I had the calculations in, as the wheels and rotation sensor spun on the stairs while not actually moving the robot. I plan to fix this by offsetting the value of the container by a set number, since the distance the wheels spin for is fairly constant. That is the only thing I have left to do, and I should be able to finish it in the half-hour before the competition.

H-22

I am completely ready for the competition tomorrow. I tested my robot repeatedly in class on Thursday and it ran excellently. I made sure that my robot measured and displayed the distance it travelled correctly by measuring the approximate distance it travelled by hand, and my robot was right on. I am excited for the competition tomorrow and am confident that my robot will perform the task expected of it.

H-22

This challenge is very frustrating and I will most likely not be ready by the deadline. I am still constructing my robot. I still have to write a program and make sure everything works right. It doesn't look good.....

todays progress.

well i guess today went a little better. Although i am getting really frustrated with those stupid legos. I mean its hard to push them together and then the things dont stay that way. ugh. and when you try to pull some of the smaller ones apart they hurt the tips of your fingers. but i was able to get the RCX brick onto the base and the motors working well. although my gears keep on grinding and moving to fast.

H-21

Today I just about finished building my robot. All I have left to do is secure the RCX onto the robot. Hopefully my robot will be able to climb the stairs, so I can then begin my programming and be done with the construction of the actual robot.

Challenge 3 Progress

Day 21: Today, with Mr. Bell's help, I made a lot of progress on my robot. I finished building the robot, and started writing the program with Mr. Bell's help. I had a program that was too complicated, but Mr. Bell showed me the proper icons to use for the rotation sensor, and helped me make my calculations about the gears, divisions, and how to measure distance based on number of rotations. All I have left to do is to modify the information stored in the rotation sensor based on wheel sizes and gear ratios. I tried to do some of that today, but could not figure it out. I'm hoping that with more time, I will figure it out.

H-21

Today, I finished building my robot. I also made the part of my program that will make the robot climb up the platforms and then stop. In order to do this, I used a light sensor attached to the front of my robot. I had to change the default value of the light sensor because it was very difficult to find the correct value to wait for. This was because the area between the steps created a spot of darkness almost as dark as the final black line. However, after some trial and error, I was able to get my robot to consistently stop after it had climbed the platforms. Tomorrow I will write the part of the program that handles measuring the distance that the robot travels.

Progress Negative

Today wasn't really successful but I did get some done. I didn't get everything done that I wanted and only some of my robot is build now. Although I do have all the wheels and everything ready I could really use someones help getting the gears to stay together. Although I think I wont have an easy time getting all this done. And I haven't even begun the coding yet!

H-20 and H-21

I am slowly making progress with this challenge. I almost have my robots construction done, but I know this challenge won't be easy. I hope I can finish this in time.


Jordan

H-20

Today I just worked on building my robot to be able to climb the stairs. All I need to do is secure the motors and build the top of the robot so that my RCX can be put on. Hopefully by the end of tomorrow I will be testing my robot on the stairs, and hopefully the program will work.

Challenge 3 Progress

Day 20: Today, I made a lot of progress. I succeeded in making a robot that will climb the stairs, and have it able to stop when it reaches the end of the stairs. All I have left to do is program the robot to measure and display the distance it has traveled. I started yesterday, but could not find the way to get the distance to one smaller than the entire circumference of the wheel.

H-20

Today, I had to catch up since I missed yesterday's class. I began constructing my robot, and am almost done with it. The only thing left I have to do is attach the front wheels and secure the RCX unit better. Tomorrow, I plan to test my robot and make sure it can climb the stairs. I will then begin the programming of the robot, and complete as much as the remaining time in the period allows for.

H-19

I think that the main challenge for the robot will be the building of the robot itself. I think that the programming will be pretty easy, as it is just basic math. In order to make my robot climb the stairs, I will need to have a lot of torque. The robot must also move relatively fast in order to not slip. I think that I will use the largest wheels available because these will perform the best with the stairs due to their size. However, the main drawback to these wheels is that they use a lot of power from the robot.

H-19

Well I think that the idea of not slipping upon steps will not be a difficult thing to overcome. There are some really knobby tires available in the robotics kit. So I hope that those will be able to just heave their way up the like 1'' incline. The only problem there is having enough power to be able to do so. Or torque, Im pretty sure its torque. But yeah. Thats like only one of the overcomable things I need to do.
Oh YEAH!!
I just remembered that I need to also find a way to stop at that there line that isn't as distinct as any of the other black lines that we have had. Its like from red to black and theyre knobbed so thats gonna be odd to try to work out.

H_20

Well today I worked more on attempting to get my robots structure built. It really isn't the easiest thing. Since I have to find a way to get the wheels to have enough torque in the position they're in and still be able to push the RCX brick along. It's able to push the entire rest of the structure but once attaching the RCX brick there is a clicking noise and it's not able to pull that heavy thing. I need to get everything ready here soon, or else Ill be up the creek without a super hydron collider. 0,o. Anyway, what I am going to try to get done tomorrow is ...
1) Fix that whole lack of torque and strength thing.
2)Try to make it able to pull all the wheels along with only 1 motor (thanks noel for that inspiration)
3) See if I can figure out the amount of whatnot that I need.

Challenge 3 ... h - 19

I really have no idea what I am going to do for this challenege. I am trying to figure out how to build my actually robot to do this job. Then another problem will be the programming. I dont even know how I will make it go up the stairs, but I will start thinking about it today.

H-19

At first I was going to just use one big wheel connected to the front of the RCX to build my robot, but I was kidding myself and knew that was too easy. Right now I am a little stumped and hope I can come up with something soon.

H-18

Gear ratios help in determining how far you want the robot to run for. If you can measure the circumference, the you can set how many rotations you want. The rotation sensor can be used to measure exactly how many rotations of an axle occurred, and the distance a robot has traveled or needs to travel can be measured exactly.

Challenge 3, Day 1

Day 19: I plan on using large wheels with gears to climb the steps. I will put four large wheels on the vehicle, and use gears to increase the wheels' torque. I am not sure whether this will work or not, but I hope it does.

gears and such

I think one of the more useful ways to get the upcoming challenge done is to construct a program that will just measure the amount of turns on the wheel. but heres my question? if it displays the amount of turns are we able to calculate the distance ourselves?

100th post

YAY HUNDEDTH POST!! sorry mr. bell. but i just thought that might have been significant.

Gear Ratios and the Rotation Sensor

To measure a distance that is exact enough to meet the specifications of this challenge, we will have to use gear ratios. Increasing the gear ratio of the wheels will both give the wheels more torque and allow the rotation sensor to measure more accurately. This is because the number of divisions per wheel goes up with the gear ratio. To do this, I will have to connect the wheels to a gear with more teeth than the gears the wheels are resting on.

Gears and Ratios

Gear ratios and a rotation sensor could be very helpful in determining the exact distance you want a robot to go. If you are able to measure the circumference of a wheel, then you are able to calculate exactly how many rotations of it you want to occur. This is where the rotation sensor comes in. It can be used to measure exactly how man rotations of an axle occurred, and thus the distance a robot has traveled or needs to travel can be measured exactly.

Challenge Day - Day of the challenge

I had a touch time with this challenge. I really did not even know what to do. I finally got a code thanks to help from Mr. Bell, but it didn't work at all. it only moved forward, it didn't even count the lines. I don't really know what I could've done to make my robot better because I never could understand how to even program my robot for this challenge. Hopefully I will do better on the next challenge.

Challenge 2

Day 17: I liked this challenge a lot. I found it fairly easy, and it was fun. Obviously, my robot performed well, but I think it was pure luck that I did so well. I did not expect my robot to do as well as it did. I just got lucky with the timing part of my program. Other than the timing and getting it to stop at the appropriate time though, I found the program very easy. I found it strange and amusing that Jeremiah and I had the same number of parts in such different cars.

Reaction to Challenge 2

I was not as happy with my robot's performance for the challenge as I thought I would be. I thought that my robot would be able to count the lines accurately and then stop, which it did not. I think that I should have had my robot run a subroutine or something like that instead of jumping and creating a loop, because my robot got stuck in the loop and had to wait for another dark line. To solve this I had to touch the robot, costing me points.

H-17

I thought this challenge was easier than the last one, once I got help from Mr. Bell and Noel. I liked how the challenge was straightforward. What I didn't like was how none of our robots stopped on their own, and wish we would have had that tip to make it stop on its own.

Competition Results.

Today was our land mine detecting competition. My robot didn't do very much except just go straight and stay in a line. I think this is because I wasn't able to figure out how to do anything and I didn't find much help elsewhere. I think it would have gone better if at least my robot had counted the lines, but I couldnt get it to do that. I really dont care for comments on how to get it to work. I just think that the upcoming project is going to be really hard. For some reason.

Challenge 2: The Actual Night Before

I had thought that I was ready for the competition today, but I wasn't. When I had tested out my robot on the final day of class before the weekend, it had seemed to work fine. However, when I ran the program this morning, something went wrong. The main problem was that the battery seemed to have lost power, and thus my robot could not operate as it was supposed to. To solve this, I changed the power level in my program. Despite solving this problem, I still was not content with my program. It seemed to work only conditionally, when the dark line was distinct enough. I solved this by adjusting the percent value in the wait for dark and wait for light icons in my program. Hopefully, my robot is now fully ready for the competition.

Challenge 2: Day 4 (The day before)

I am hopefully ready for this challenge. I got help from Mr. Bell today with my programming and that is all good. The only problem I have right now is that when I try to load my program onto my robot, it say 'programming error'. So hopefully I can figure that out in about 3 minutes or so.

Challenge 2 Progress

Day 16: Today, expecting to have to compete today, I was almost ready. After about five minutes of fine-tuning my robot's timing, I was ready. After the unexpected extra day, I was able to help people understand the programming better or read a book. I am ready for tomorrow, and expect to do well. I also think I have a good chance at getting the bonus points for simplest car.

H-16

I was completely ready for the project this morning, until everything went wrong. I couldn't find my program file. Luckily, with help from Noel, I was able to complete a full program. I am pretty much set for tomorrow.

Challenge 2: The Day Before

Originally, I wasn't sure how I was going to get my robot to run the proper loop in the program. However now, after some help from Mr. Bell, I feel ready for the competition tomorrow. The only thing left that I need to do tomorrow is to adjust the timing in my program. I also plan to test out my robot on the course for the challenge tomorrow.

Challenge 2: Day 3

I have been having problems programming my robot to do this challenge, but Mr. Bell has been helping me and hopefully I will be ok for the challenge day. I also have not seen any classmates have problems that I can help with.

H-15

I am almost completely finished with this project, thanks to Mr. Bell. I now understand the programming part much better now. Theo nly thing I have to do now is adjust the time that it runs for, and i also just have to tweak a few more things. I will be set and ready to go Tuesday.

Challenge 2 Progress

Day 15: Today, with help and advice from Mr. Bell, I realized a mistake I made and made lots of progress. I realized that I needed to have my robot "announce" the number of mines at the end, not while it was running, and the modified program is working better than the last program I had. The new program does everything that i need it to. The only thing I have left to do it determine some distances and times on Tuesday. I think that I will do fairly well, and have a fairly simple robot, so I think that I am in the running to get the bonus points for simplest vehicle.

Challenge 2: Day 2

I am having a lot of problems with this challenge. My robot is already built but the programming is giving me a lot of problems. I really don't know what to do, but hopefully I can figure something out tomorrow.

Working on Challenge 2

By now, I am completely finished building my robot. The only thing I have left to do for Challenge 2 is to finish the program. While working today, I figured out how to count the "mines" for the most part. I also learned how to write to the display on the RCX. Now, my main problem is figuring out how to make the robot only go for a certain time, as well as a few kinks in the program. I plan to have these completely worked out tomorrow.

Challenge 2 Progress

Day 14: I think that I am doing better with this challenge than the last one. My RCX and program are being inconsistent though. I have gotten my program to work on several occasions, and am getting the robot to stop well now, but the counting of mines is not reliable yet. I have had several tests in which the robot has done exactly what it was supposed to, and some where it only picked up the first line it crossed, and all of these tests were with an identical program. Once I get that issue resolved though, I only have some timing and speed issues to work out before I am done, unless I figure out a far superior method by the end of tomorrow's class.

H-14

This challenge is harder than the last one for me. It is going to take a lot more programming skills. However, I have gotten closer to finishing my program. I just need to tweak it here and there to make sure it is counting the lines. I also think I am going to set a time for it to stop. Although this is a harder challenge, I think I will succeed.

Challenge 2 Initial Reaction

Well I think one of the harder parts is going to be figuring out how the heck to make the code all work together since it doesn't necessarily tell you. But I am excited because I found out how to make a container and I guess I just need to find out the rest of it. Im not really worried about making it have the least amount of parts as I just want it to run succesfully. I am going to try to get it to stop after not seeing black for 2 seconds or something. But it will be running slower because I need it to not go out of the course.

H-11

Now that we have been given our specifications as to how the first challenge is going to be, there are some things I had problems with. I had a lot of instances where pieces were just falling off of the robot and somethings weren't lining up correctly. It is very frustrating when that happens and it hurts your hands to have to push the pointy legos back into position.

H-7

Inventor day 2.
One thing that I would have to add to inventor is that it is a great tool and more useful than pilot. Not only for the more obvious freedom but because it shows you what is wrong with your program. I think its really helpful to see ," oh no! a broken wire. ill have to fix that." And then you can just go and erase all the broken wires and then you get the error console which is also helpful. Pilots just like, "run it and youll see if it works." Inventor also allows you to save the program to different slots and set the ports as you see fit. Good program.

Challenge 2 Reaction

Day 13: I think that I will like the second challenge bit more than the first one. The second challenge sounds easier, although I don't think it will be as easy as it sounds. The land mine counting should be easy. I can just have the robot beep when it crosses one or have it display the number. getting it to stop should be fairly easy too. I can just make it stop after 15 cm without a mine or after a certain period of time without a mine. What I am most worried about is programming the loops and connections, which I do not feel prepared to do, even after the inventor levels.

Challenge 2

I feel that that as opposed to challenge one, the focus of this challenge is more on the programming of the robot. So far, I have almost completed building my robot, but still need to construct the program. I know that I will need a light sensor to count the lines, but I am not sure how I am going to program it. I think I will have the robot run while counting lines, and then somehow stop once it has not found a line for 15cm. I am looking forward to this challenge and hope to come up with some ideas for the programming part of it tonight.

Challenge 2: Day 1

My first reaction to this challenge is that it is a little difficult. I don't have much of an idea yet for how I am going to get my robot to count the 'land mines' but I am thinking about it tonight. As for stopping it, I think I will have it run for a set amount of time and if it doesn't sense any more black tape, then it will stop.

H-13

I have a vague idea how I'm going to get my robot to work for the second challenge. However, I am a little stumped on what I'm going to use to count lines, though I'm pretty sure I'm going to need a light sensor. But, I do know that I'm going to get it to stop with a timer. Overall, I think I have a pretty good understanding of what I'm going to need to do.

Challenge 1

Day 12: I found the first challenge to be both interesting and fun, except for one small problem. My robot performed as I expected it to, except for the fact that I could not get it to stop on its own. I tried everything I could think of to achieve this, and succeced on one test immediately before the challenge. During and since the challenge though, I could not figure out how to get the robot to stop. I would appreciate comments with advice on this subject. Other than that, my robot worked very well, and did exactly what I wanted.

Challenge #1

Today, I thought that my robot performed well. It completed all the requirements, and I feel that the time needed for it to finish, 32 seconds, was satisfactory. I think that my robot could have performed better by knowing where the line was, instead of just running the motors for a specific time. This would have cut a few seconds off of the time. Overall, I feel that my robot did a very good job.

H-12

I thought the challenge was really fun even though my robot didn't do so well in the competition. I forgot to test which way the robot would go after it's first rotation. But, it was a good experience and will do better with the next challenge.

H-11

My robot is really coming together. I have all the programming done as well as the construction of my robot. All I need to do now is some minor tweaks, but I am ready for the competition.

Day of the challenge

The challenge ended up being really fun. I was happy that my robot completed what I wanted it to do and really everything was good about it. The only thing that was bad was that there was always one can left in the circle. If I were to fix this I would just have my robot run about one or two extra loops to be sure that every can was out of the circle.

Challenge Day 3

Day 11: By now, my robot is completely finished and I only have one minor detail to finish in my program. The only obstacle left is to get the robot to stop when it is done. I am looking forward to the challenge on Monday.

Challenge 1 the last day

My robot for challenge one is going great. I have completed the physical aspect and I am pretty much done with the programming of it. All I need to do is test my robot on the actual posterboard with the tape and make little to no changes to the programming. I have also tested the time it may take for my robot to get the cans out, and as of now it is under one minute. I am excited to participate in the challenge tomorrow and hope my robot will do what it is supposed to.

Challenge #1 - The Day Before

I think that I made a lot of progress this past class. I finalized the physical design of my robot, and only have to possibly make a few slight tweaks to my program. I have decided that the most efficient way to remove all of the cans from the circle is to have my robot go in a pattern while pushing all of the cans out. The pattern is designed to cover the entire circle. I look forward to testing out my robot at the start of class tomorrow and then competing in the competition.

Challenge one, day two

I did not really have an idea of what to do yesterday and thought I would have some problems. But that night I thought about how I would construct my robot and how I would make it get all of the cans out of the circle. I now have my robot constructed and I am now working on the programming. Things are going ok so far.

Robot Resources

I think a good resource for building a robot is the quick start guide. I think this is good because it teaches you how to program the robot and how to build it. Another resource could be the book that shows you ways to build the robot.

Kourtney

Challenge Day 2

As of day 2, I have formulated a plan for removing the cans from the ring. However, I have not yet managed to write a program for executing this plan. I have however, managed to build a robot. Tomorrow, I plan to work out the kinks in my program. I need to do this and have enough time to test my robot so that I can be sure that it will perform its task on the day of the competition.

Challenge Bot Progress

Day 10: My robot construction for the challenge is going very well. The robot is fairly simple, but it is completely constructed, and I have most of my program written. The only thing I still need to do is test and fine-tune the robot. I plan to do that tomorrow.

Progress little I have.

Well I have been working out my idea on how I am to push the cans out of the way. I really would like to learn how inventor actually works because it just pops you into a program that you dont know how to use and most of the stuff you try out doesn't work because it doesn't tell you how to make it work. I think pilot would actually be easier to use and just make a lot more steps since I dont even understand why I can't make more than one step work at a time in inventor.
Jeremiah

H-10. How my robot is progressing.

I think I am really progressing well towards my final goal. My basic idea is to have the robot basically make itself go into the center of the circle and then rotate with long sort of arms, and push all the cans out of the way. My biggest challenge will probably be if cans fall over. I don't know if the arms are low enough yet to push out the cans that fall down.


Jordan

H-8 Information on robots

I think the actual guide that is provided in class is a great resource for construction. It gives great ideas of robots, how to construct them, and how to program them. I am really having a hard time finding other information for resources.

Inventor for a second day. homework 7?

I think Inventor is very free and much more customizable than pilot. However, it is much more difficult. For example, there are many programs that I do not know about that could probably really help me with my robot. In all, I think Inventor is much more useful than pilot.


Jordan

Challenge 1

I think that this challenge is supposed to be simple, but I am having a little difficulty with it. I am still trying to figure out how I should build my car and how I will get the cans out of the circle. Tonight I will be thinking it out and will hopefully understand how to do it tomorrow.

Kourtney

Challenge Day 1

Day 9: Today we started the first challenge. The challenge seems moderately easy. I plan to simply put a funnel-like "mouth" on the front of a basic vehicle, and have the car drive around until all of the cans are moved out of the circle. I think that the hardest thing to do by the deadline will be to write a program that has the robot stop after it has moved all of the cans away.

More Information

Day 8: I could not find any more helpful information on using the RCX Lego kit.

Robot Resources

After looking at the recommended website, I feel that it would be helpful in coming up with ideas for constructing and programming the robot. I also think that the Quick Start Guide and book provided in class are great resources. They provide great instructions for how to program a robot and utilize all of the applicable functions in Inventor. I hope that these sources will also be helpful in constructing a robot and program for the second challenge.

The First Challenge

I think that the first challenge will be pretty simple. The I think the best way to remove all the cans from the circle is to just have the robot drive around the entire circle, pushing all the cans out. I had originally thought that I would have the robot detect each can it removes with a touch sensor, but then I realized that there wasn't a set number of cans, so I couldn't tell the robot how many cans it had to remove in total. I think that my program and robot are coming along pretty well, and I think that I will meet the deadline.

H_9

I dont think this will be an easy challenge. Its not like we completely understand how Inventor works, therefore throwing difficulty into an already hard challenge. Plus theres this whole size limit thing. So I guess we just have to figure out our way around that. Maybe just making it wide enough that its still under the rules and then just making it spin. Hopoefully this will work. Oh yeah. We also have to make it stop at the black line. So well see how that goes.

First Challenge

I think this challenge should be pretty simple. I have an idea how I'm going to make it work. I think that the construction of the car should be easier than actually programming it. One of the things that could stand in my way is the length limit.

Inventor Level

I think inventor level is more expansive and free than pilot. This is because of the ability to make things happen at the same time and not have to fit everything into a criteria. It can be confusing what to do at some times. But I think that most of the time Inventor level is fun to play around with and program the RCX with.
Jeremiah

Inventor Level Pt. 2

I have not changed my opinion of the Inventor levels. I find them better than the Pilot because they have alot more options for things your robot can do, like play music, and do two things at once. I still think that Inventor can get confusing, but it is still fun.

Kourtney (day 7 assignment)

Robot programming resources.

One of the most useful resources that I found for RCX programming was the packet of information itself. It seems to contain all the information you need to program the programs on the RCX. The Lego programming packet also gives us the necessary projects that we can use to increase our knoweledge of the RCX.

Inventer Level

I think the Inventor level is much better than the Pilot level although it is more difficult. It is much more customizable than Pilot. You can program lots more things with the Inventor Level. Inventor level is more difficult though. There are some very advanced controls in the program and its not always easy to work.


Jordan

Rectangle Car

I think that making the car go in a rectangle was very tedious. It's probably one of the hardest things to program. For Example, after my first initial run, it was not even close to a rectangle. It was not even a shape. I had to tweak the car multiple times to get it even close to working.


Jordan

Inventor Level Day 2

After using the Inventor level some more, I am really appreciating how many options it gives you. The main problem with it is that I am still not familiar with all of the commands available in the fourth Inventor level. There are some sophisticated commands that I feel could be of help. However, that does not offset the many advantages of the Inventor level. The Inventor level is much better than the Pilot level because it allows you to control the flow of your robots program much more.

Inventor Levels, Part 2

Day 7: After using more features of the Inventor Levels, my opinion of them has not changed. If anything, my feelings about them have grown stronger. It is still good to know exactly what is happening, and to set up what will happen by yourself, instead of just adjusting pre-arranged commands. There are still some difficulties with the connections between steps, but I think that I will get used to those with experience.

Inventor

I think that the inventor level is better than the pilot levels. The differences are that with inventor you get more choices for what you want your robot to do, while in pilot there weren't very many options. The good thing about inventor is that it allows more freedom, and is more fun. The only downside is that it sometimes can get confusing, but I can usually figure out what it is talking about.

-Kourtney (day 6 assignment)

Rectangular Problems

The problem with making a robot that is not made of solidly stated parts go in a rectangle is...well there are a few of them. One of the main ones is that the pieces aren't always perfectly centered where you want them to be. My one wheel continued to warp a bit each time. So that would be the main problem with it. The other one is that some mechanical problems cannot be fixed with timing changes completely. It's easy to set a new time and try that out, but it doesnt fix wheels or motor problems.
Jeremiah

Inventor Levels

I think that the Inventor Level is both more interesting and more difficult than the Programmer Levels. The Inventor Level allows you to do almost anything that the robot can do, which gives you much more freedom. This also causes them to be slightly more difficult to use. In the Inventor Level, you must think every step through, put them all together, and link them together in the right order. One thing that I did not like about the Inventor Level was the fact that, while connecting some of the wires, you were forced to try multiple times to get the "wires" in exactly the right place, and if you didn't, the program would not work correctly.

Inventor Level

I think that the Inventor level program is much better than the Pilot level. It provides much more opportunity for customizing how your robot operates. It allows much more room for modification. I also like the interface of it more. Seeing your program in a series of connected operations is much easier to understand than different events happening in different steps, with only one step being visible at a time. I enjoy being able to view my entire program. Overall, I think that the Inventor level will provide much more opportunity in the classroom.

Cars driving in a rectangle.

I liked making the car go in a rectangle, but it was a little frustrating. It was frustrating because everytime I would test the car, it would not go into a straight line, it would go in a diagonal line. The obstacles were that the two motors could have had a different friction, causing one to run differently than the other. Another obstacle was the time of how long the car would go foward with each turn. To correct the deficiency of the time, I just kept testing how the car ran with different times to get it as close to a rectangle as possible. I think to make it work better you could make sure that the friction of the two motors are as close as you can get them to being the same.

Making our cars drive in a rectangle

Making our cars drive in a rectangle was far more difficult than I expected. First of all, I expected to be able to set the two motors to drive at the same power level for a set period of time and have the car travel in a straight line. When I tried this though, the car started pulling to the left. As a test I then switched which side each motor was on, and the car pulled to the right, signifying that one motor was weaker than the other. Once I knew this, I was able to offset the more powerful motor from power level five, which both motors had been on, to power level four, which made the two motors put out the same amount of power and allowed the car to travel in a straight line. The other difficulty I encountered was how to get the car to turn at a 90˚ angle. I first tried having the two motors run in opposite directions at full power for one second, but that lead to a turn that was far too tight. Eventually, after quite a lot of experimenting, adjusting, and guessing, I discovered that the closest I could get to a 90˚turn was to have the two motors running in opposite directions with the more powerful one at power level two and the less powerful one at full power for 0.6 seconds. As with most things, I could not get the car to drive in a perfect rectangle, but after lots of experimentation and tweaking, I got the car to drive in the closest thing to a rectangle as I found it possible to achieve.

Imperfections of Robots

While attempting to get my robot to drive in a rectangle, I encountered a number of problems. The main problem I encountered was with getting my robot to go in a straight line. To correct this, I had to change the power level in one of the motors because it seemed to run slower than the other. I also had trouble getting the turn to be an exact 90 degrees. There was not enough variability in the set times. I was not able to get my car to turn 90 degrees by simply letting it go for 0.7 seconds. It was always either a little over or a little under 90 degrees, no matter what i adjusted. In order to solve these two large problems involving distances traveled over time, I think that we would have to disregard time entirely, as it is not accurate. Instead, we could use the number of rotations of the motor and axis.

Lego = Robots ?

Does a block with legos on it and a light sensor count as a robot? Yeah! In my opinion it does. A robot is meant to do a task, and most often that task is to be repeated a bunch of times. Well guess what? Thats exactly what our robots do. They go back and forth looking at light differences and shadows. Then they repeat that on a different surface. Sound familiar? It's because that's how a robot works. We built it. It does a task and does it again. It doesnt think on its own. Its a robot. So in my opinion, the things we built are indeed robots.

Pilot Level 2: A Robot Car?

Alright, lets get down to the point. Despite these robots being given simple tasks (turning motors on for set periods of time in order to make the wheels move and stop given a touch response), I do believe that these "creations of ours" could be considered robots. They fall under the category of being programmed to perform a certain task and are obviously capable of doing so throughout a means of preset scripting. Though the tasks are quite simple, this doesn't mean that these robots are not robots. If you were to take notes on our first day of robotics, these robots fall into all of these categories in one aspect or another.

Robot Cars

I think that the cars we are building are, or at least soon will be, robots. Right now, they are not serving any particular purpose, except for driving around and stopping or turning when they receive a specific signal, but aside from that, they have all of the qualities of a robot. For instance, they are aware of their environment, through light and touch sensors. They also are capable of using their power to perform a task, if we set it up so that they could and let them. Lastly, they run by themselves once they are programmed and we push the run button, or would if we allowed the touch or light sensors to be moved by the vehicle and its environment, instead of controlling it ourselves. The cars do all of this with a computer, sensors, output devices like motors, their environment, and a program installed by us. Therefore, they are robots, or will be once we start making them serve a purpose.

Robot?

I think that the cars could be considered a very simple robot. They complete simple tasks like going a certain distance in a set amount of time. Although I think the car is a robot, I still think that they will get more complex and complete different tasks.

Robots

I think that we are not building complete robots, however we are progressing towards that goal. Our "robots" are programmed, but they do not necessarily perform a task. They do however operate mostly free from human intervention. I would say that our "robots" are not complete robots yet, but we are progressing towards that goal each day.

Robots

I think what we are building are robots. The reason for this is because we have to measure the distances, program it, and really test it. I'm not sure its really meting the criteria yet, because it hasn't completed a task (yet). But on the other hand, we are building it, so I would say currently, it matches about 50% of the criteria.


-Jordan

First week of Robotics

I immensely enjoyed the first week of this class. Working with the Legos was fun and interesting at the same time. I enjoy hands-on activities and this is definitely one of them. One thing that was a bit fustrating was trying to download the program onto the brick which you constantly had to keep moving until it received the signal. Other than that, I enjoyed this week of classes and I am anticipating the next.

The First Week of Robotics Class

Overall, I feel that the first week went well. I enjoyed working with the LEGO Mindstorms kit, and felt that it provided a thorough introduction to robotics. One thing that could be improved upon is the program we are using to program the robots. It is very simple and does not provide a direct approach to programming robots, it instead uses already built commands to create processes. However, I still feel that the first week was a great introduction to robotics.

Robotics Class, Week 1

Despite the fact that I missed the first day, I am enjoying robotics class immensely. I especially like having to encounter and fix problems ourselves. I think that the class is a very good introduction to robotics, as well as a nice break from more typical classes. I enjoy learning in a hands-on way more than just listening to a teacher talk or taking notes. Lastly, I think that the class is made easier by the fact that we are using something that is already familiar to us, in LEGOs, to build our robots.

The first week

I think the first week of class was really enjoyable. I like how we get to build the robots ourselves, and how if we have any questions they are easily answered. I think robotics is already a great class and there is really nothing I don't like about it.

Things that could be improved upon.

I think that the H.A. robotics class is fun to the point of actually programming. I think it would be more beneficial to know how robots work if we actually used a programming language to code. This would more so give an example of what they are actually coded with than a "drag and drop" program like the Lego one. I just would rather actually "code" than paste around things for it to do. I also dont like how it is set up already. I would much rather have a screen thats black and a terminal telling me to," C://robotics.doc edit?*blink-blink*. And then we would look up more commands and things to make the robots do. Like we could use the program visual basic or something.

Robotics Class

I think the robotics class is really interesting and fun. I like how we have to program and measure everything ourselves. I also like how we can modify the robots. I really can't think of anything that needs to be improved on because I really enjoy this class.

LEGO's

When I was little, I wasn't too interested in LEGO's. I started to just play around with them when I was 10. The biggest thing I ever built was a huge star wars ship. Me and my friend put it together and it was really interesting. Then I started building bigger and more complicated projects.

Robotics Class

In robotics class so far we have done an excercise in human programming. And we found out that we have to program EVERYTHING we want the computer or the robot to do. It's a neat class so far and I am looking forward to more.

Playing with summa Legos.

Right. Well I played with legos a bunch and many other designing tools also. One of my favorite lego creations that I made was a car. It was difficult and had square wheels but I was able to make a hummer like vehicle. It didn't roll very well but did a good job at looking cool. I wish I had a picture of it but I dont. Well thats what I played with.
Jeremiah

Playing with Legos

Back a fair amount of years ago, I had several experiences with Legos. Initially, I understood the basic concepts described in the booklet as well as the linking pieces, though I wasnt well, too talented at putting thse things together. I was introduced to these neat little toys first in a classroom environment where I heard them mentioned. I soon developed a moderate interest in thse various colored blocks, and built simple vehicles and such. On the contrary to thoroughly inspecting the confines of the manual, I decided to simply "immerse" myself within them, starting fron scratch on simple items. If I wished to move up a scale on an object, I would merely purchase another kit which provided spare parts from what I recall. I eventually dropped this when I lost interest in them and decided that I was too old for playing with these young children'stoys.

Legos

When I was little I played with legos all the time. I would try to make the things in the instruction booklets but usually ended up making other random things, such as cars and buildings. I usually also just put random legos together to make just a block of legos.

phil's Favorite Lego creation

When I was six my father bought for my brother and I a star wars lego set. It was kind of like mindstorms; there was a motor and an instruction manual for ideas. The motor was pre-programmed for the specific sets, like if it was Darth Vader, then you would set the motor to the programmed number in the manual and then the motor would run and if you built it right and the gears worked, then the lightsaber would swing. There were many kits to build and they were grouped at different difficulty levels and I know that I built them all.

My Favorite LEGO Construction

When I was younger, LEGOs were probably my favorite toy. I spent many hours constructing many objects out of LEGOs. Many of my constructions were built using instructions from LEGO kits, but I also made many on my own. I also used the LEGO Mindstorms. My favorite creation was a robot that could sort candy based on color.

Automated Guided Vehicles

Automated Guided Vehicles or AGV are robots that use the guidance of wires or tapes to perform tasks in factories. These are most helpful because they can do jobs that humans can't and they are not hard to maintain. They mostly deliver items but they can be put to other uses too like assembling parts. They follow one specific path and they trace wires or tape. The wires are put about an inch underground and emits a radio frequency that is very low but high enough for the AGV to hear. The AGV then just follows the wire until it reaches its target. The other way an AGV can get to its target is by following the tape. The tape can be magnetic or colored.A sensor just detects the magnetism or color in the tape and just follows it. This tape system is similar to the robot we saw with the Lego RCX brick. The tape system is preferred more than the wired because if needed, the tape can be easily removed and placed elsewhere.

My LEGO creations

Among many things that I have cobbled together with LEGOs, one of my favorites was a candy dispenser. first, we built a small box out of bricks to hold the candy. I believe I used M&Ms. After building the box, I built the dispenser by making a chute about the size of one M&M, and putting it on rubber bands attached to the inside of the box. To get candy, you would push down the chute, which was held up by the rubber bands, and when the mouth of the chute passed the bottom edge of the box, a piece of candy would fall out.

Saya

Saya, a robot teacher, can converse in many different languages, do a roll call, give assignments to her students, and has eighteen motors hidden in her latex face which helps her express emotions ranging from approval to anger. She was originally developed as a receptionist robot in 2004 by professor Hiroshi Kobayashi of the Tokyo University of Science, she has been undergoing a recent transformation to function as a substitute teacher. She was designed to take over human jobs in Japan in an effort to deliver a cheaper workforce as the population ages.

Paro the Robitic Therapy Seal

Now in its eighth prototype, Paro, a robotic, lifelike seal pup is helping members of Japan's elderly population by giving them a chance to interact with an "animal" while eliminating any danger real animals might pose. Made by Intelligent System Co., Ltd., Paro can sense sight, temperature, touch, posture and speech through various sensors in its head and body. Paro can recognize eight of the world's most spoken languages, and uses its abilities to entertain relax, and interact with therapy patients, especially the elderly. Paro is recognized as the world's most theraputic robot

The Autosub Underwater Probe

The Autosub is an advanced submersible robot. It was built and designed by the National Oceanography Centre in the United Kingdom. This robotic, unmanned submarine is capable of running pre-programmed missions up to a length of 40 hours. The Autosub performs these tasks by running a program, and traveling underwater powered by torch batteries. It operates without human intervention. The scientists needed the Autosub because it was capable of traveling under ice in the Southern Ocean, where it was too cold for humans to spend an extended period of time. With the help of the Autosub, scientists discovered a major food source under ice in the Southern Ocean.

NASA Mars Robot

NASA is inventing a new Moon Rover for a mission in 2012. It can explore thousands of miles of the moons surface, and can put astronauts on the moon for 6 months or longer. It's about the size of a pickup truck. The Rover can house two astronauts and is designed for little or no maintenance. The NASA moon rover was tested in the southwest by driving over hot lava.

Welcome to Robotics

We're going to have a great first quarter in Robotics.  Much of what you discuss for this class will be on this blog.  Remember that everything you enter here can be read by everyone in the class, and your entries are dated.  Re-written lesson plans for this class will require all students to post to this blog in response to homework assignments.