Day 18: Presentation and clean up

Today, was the last day of this class. All of the teams presented their final presentation, we disassembled our robots, got the inventory list checked off, and turned in all of the signed assignment papers. At the end, Brandon did a special and interesting presentation on his new and improved firebot.
It uses a Odroid U2 for the brains, which is a 1.7 Ghz quad core processor. It has a webcam to detect the flame and the chassis is circular providing an advantage over the squarebots for navigating sharp corners quickly and effectively. Instead of encoders, Brandon used a stepper motor to count the ticks. I thought of this a couple weeks ago but was not sure how it would work, but after hearing Brandon explain it, it sounds like I was onto something. I am very interested in purchasing an Odroid for my self to experiment with my own autonomous robot using similar techniques as well.

So Long Nathan²

Day 17: Working on Final presentation

Today, we started working on making powerpoint slides for our final presentation.
I worked on making the slides for the beginning, intro, design, build, and recommendations, while my partner worked on the slides for programming, strategy, code, and conclusion. I also did the final editing of the slides by adding animations, checking the correct text format, and adding a cool looking background and text colors.

Example of first slide

Day 16: Competition

Today, the class had the final project competition. The robots had to navigate four different rooms in order to find a candle and put it out. My teams robot did not do as good I had hoped, but we learned a lot from the whole project experience. They say, you learn more from your mistakes than your successes. Everyone had fun and overall it was a good experience.

Our robot during competition

Day 15: Upgraded Fan

Today, we did more testing. I installed a better fan to put the fire out with. The fan performed well so I am happy about that. The robot can find the flame and put it out now.

Brushless motor with prop attached

Day 14: More testing

Today, we continued working on our robot by trying to find the right encoder count to make a 90 degree turn. We finally concluded that the encoders not counting accurately enough to make consistent turns, so we went back to turning using delays. We were able to get the robot to search one room so far.

Day 13: install fan and testing

Today I installed a computer fan to be used as the flame extinguisher. Then we worked on programming the code needed to move the robot from room to room searching for the flame and then putting it out. We also received a gift of a voltage regulator to help keep the motors running consistently.

Voltage Regulator

Day 12: Ultrasonic PING Sensor

Today, I learned about the ultrasonic ping sensor. It works on the same principle that a bat uses sonar to detect objects. It sends out a sound that is higher than the human ear can hear and then sound bounces off a object or wall and back to the sensor.

Robot with all three sensors installed.

Robot stopping when detecting wall in front of it

Day 11: Line sensor and fire sensor

Today, I had to solder wires together for the line sensor. Next I installed a line sensor and fire sensor on the robot. I then begin to test each sensor to make sure they worked. After that, we programmed the robot to stop on a black line and detect the radiation from a candle and move towards it.

Soldering the wires for line sensor

Testing the Line Sensor

Fire Sensor and Line sensor installed

Robot performing line and flame sense test

Day 10: Encoders

Today, I learned about using an encoder to make the robot go a certain distance. The encoder works by counting how many of its gears go by. I had to calculate the circumference of the wheels and use a simple formula in order to know how many ticks the encoder would have to go for 12 feet and to make a left and right 90 degree turn. Last we had to program the robot to go through the maze we had it go through on day 9 but with using the encoders. Doing this was much easier and more accurate than the previous method of running the motor for a certain period to go a specified distance. Unfortunately it took us the whole class period to program and run the robot with the encoder so only one team was able to negotiate the maze.

Robot with the encoders attached

Navigating with encoders on

Day 9: vexduino and maze

Today, I soldered the components together for a Vexduino board. This allows me to control vex motors, etc with Arduino. I found out who I would be working with for the final project. We worked on programming our robot to navigate a basic maze shape. We had to make the motor run for a certain time in order to get it to go the distance we wanted. This task was tedious because we had to keep experimenting with the time in order to get as close as possible.

Vexduino board

robot with vexduino attached

maze for robot to navigate