Month: August 2018

For this week we had a challenge of moving between a black and green line using time, rotations and degrees. The one which was most accurate was the rotations one because we looked at a special rotation measurer on the Mindstorm and found out it was 1273 degrees between the black line and the green line. Next we divided that by 360 because there are 360 degrees in a circle and we got 3.54 rotations.  You can see that in my code below.

After that we looked at the colour sensor. We coded it to stop at the green square on the special line following mat.  But there was one question I asked Richard. Would it stop at a green of any shade? So, we experimented with it and it stopped only once on the line following  mat because it wasn’t the actual green shown on the color picker. We tried again but this time with a green bit of Lego and it stopped all the time at the place it should stop at. So, it appears that it only stops at a certain shade of green.

This week at robotics we focused on the coding element. We made the robot move forward for 3 seconds and then back for practice, then started doing more complicated things.

We used trial and error to get to a green line and back, and we had to try a lot of times before we got it to work.

 

The final result is here, where we used rotations.

 

Then we moved on to the colour sensor, where we had to go to the green part of the line-following route and stop when we got to it. The colour green was the wrong shade, so the robot just went past it. Next week we will adjust the setting so that the different setting of green will work.

We also discussed that the method that was used to find the number of rotations to the green line was not foolproof, and if the wheels were bigger or smaller the distance travelled would be more or less.

 

 

 

 

 

 

WORD OF THE DAY: SPORADIC. This word means that something is temperamental, or something only sometimes works.

This week  during robotics class we started basic programming of the  Mindstorm robot. We completed a challenge where we had to programme the robot to move straight to a green line and back to a black line. When we first attempted this we programmed the robot to move forward for 1.75 seconds at full speed, and then back at the same speed and for the same length of time. We then tried the task again, but this time we had to work out the amount of degrees the wheels had to turn to reach the green line, and then get back to the start. We did this by using the motors. For the final part of the challenge we had to work out how rotations of the wheels would it take to reach the green line and then back again. We did this by dividing the amount of degrees this would take by the amount of degrees in a circle (360) to get our answer of 3.536111… rotations. We then programmed this to make the robot go to the line and back. Here is my programme:

After this fun challenge we began using the colour sensor to make the Mindstorm stop when it ran onto the colour green. We experimented with this by using different shades of green. To start with we tested this on a printed shade of green on the line follower track. We used a Lego piece to see if it would work better, after we found out that it only worked one time on the printed shade of green. The piece of Lego we used worked indefinitely better as it worked every time. It was interesting because we tried to create a shadow over the green on the track so it would appear to be a darker colour. In the end this had no effect on the results.

During next week’s session we are going to explore the abilities of the colour sensor to a further degree.

Today we focused on the software/programming side of things.  We first observed the code that Richard had done that used the EV3 colour sensor.  It was slow but smooth.

Next we used the EV3 lessons and did the move straight challenge.  We did some guess and checking and got it right with time.  With rotations it was a bit more difficult.  So we measured the degrees using the motors.  We then divided the degrees (1273) by 360 because there are 360 degrees in a circle.

We used the colour sensor to make it stop when it detected green.  This was interesting as we tried it on our mat that is a light shade of green.  That didn’t work.  We then tried it again and it worked.  Once!!! But we couldn’t get it to do that again.  I was leaning over at the time so maybe it was some sort of shadow.  We then tried it on a green LEGO Brick that worked every time.

Next week we will explore the colour sensor even more.

Our Mindstorm adventure continues.

Last week we looked at Richard’s LEGO Mindstorms line follower. It did not get around the course, and this week we will modify it to get around the course better.

We set up the website for blogging our weekly achievements (this website) and all have our own accounts.

This week we adjusted the position of the sensor and changed the codes for higher speed and more aggressive turning. The position of the sensor moving towards the centre helped line following because the triangle between the wheels was smaller. Increasing the turning aggressiveness made the robot stray off the line, causing it to fail the course.

We also looked at how Richard bought our domain name and EV3 software and observed the code. Next week we will write our own code from scratch using the software.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: Learning to code is like learning a new language.

During robotics class last week we bought a .space domain. We bought this domain so that we could document what we are completing each week and the projects we work on, because at the RoboCup competition they will ask you what you and your team have learnt, and the projects you have completed preparing for the competition. By using this domain we are learning the fundamental components of WordPress; which is what we are using to manage and build our domain. This week we installed the Lego Mindstorms EV3 software so that we can program the Mindstorms robot. During the session we observed the EV3 line-following software and how it uses programming blocks. We also tried moving the colour sensor closer to the centre in front of the robot and closer to the wheels to see what difference it would make, and how it would affect the robots ability to stay on the line and manage the sharper turns.

This week was partly about observing the Mindstorm and getting the software up and running.

We got the domain name off an American website.  We all wrote down some ideas for our domain name.  We decided on mangorei.roboteam.space.  A nice name for our group.  We searched up on the American website our idea and we could get it.  Richard brought it and as the admin gave us all accounts.

We are using WordPress to run our blog/website.

Today we downloaded the mindstorms EV3 software for the educational version.  We then looked at the code Richard wrote for the reflection line follower.  We observed the way the Mindstorm went around the maze.

We made some adjustments to get the sensor to the middle of the robot to make an equilateral triangle between the two wheels and the sensor.

Next week we will look at the coding side of things.

What a great start to our Mindstorm adventures.

This week we bought a domain name for our website. It’s called mangorei.roboteam.space.  We bought it from namecheap.com.

Next, we installed the EV3 software by going into a package or PKG on the school iMac’s. We did it on 3 of them. When we installed the EV3 software we had to be logged in as a administrator.

Next, we learned how to post stuff on the website. Richard setup the blog and accounts for us.

After that, we observed the EV3 software.

After that, we modified the robots light sensor to see how smoothly it follows the line. We saw that if you move the light sensor into the middle and closer to the wheels it followed the line better.

My favourite bit was changing the light sensor by moving it to the middle and discovering the demo mode.