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AllisonsEggHuntPlanningPage

TEAM NAME: NO WISK NECESSARY

ROBOT: SENS-ATIONAL

COHORT: BLUE

PARTNERS IN CRIME: CHANDNI SANARIYA & ALLISON FIDLER

We Will Scramble the Competition, No Wisk Necessary!!!

Project Management Overview

Egghunt Write Up

GAME PLAN!!!

What do we want to do?

1. Make the robot be able to pick the color that it wishes to find

2. Once it has chosen which color it wishes to find, have it locate an egg

3. Create some sort of "egg trapping device" that will let us trap egg and bring to goal

4. Home in on light source and drop egg in goal

5. Make the robot safe so that it doesn't fall into goal (may not be necessary)

STRATEGY!!!

• To complete the Egg Hunt Task, our offensive strategy is to use 3 photo resistors, 1 distance sensor, and a servo motor to find, trap, and bring the egg to the goal. We will also use a toggle switch to differentiate between the yellow egg and the blue egg. Two photo resistor sensors will be placed at the front of the robot to detect light coming from the goal. The other photo resistor sensor and the distance sensor will be placed directly in front of the robot's front bumper and will be used to find the egg and distinguish between each color. The servo motor will be used to trap the egg. As the robot heads toward the goal from there, it will smoothly roll within the trapping device and then fall into the goal.

Allison's Progress

Check Out My Progress!

As of Saturday, December 29

So I took external light sensor readings on a set of white Christmas lights and a yellow ball that we are using for the Egg Hunt. Here's what I got for results:

• In both cases, I used only 1 photo resistor sensor placed in cr8->adc_CENTER2 and positioned at the front of the robot

Christmas lights

• To run this test, I placed 1 photo resistor (light) sensor in the front of the robot
• I noticed that the range was, for the most part, > 400 and < 480
• The best range of readings that I got for the light sensor was between 415 and 475

* Keep in mind though, these results might change depending on the brightness of the lights that will be used in the egg hunt and also how concentrated the light source is (for instance, the lights can be tangled so it would be brighter at one end of the goal opposed to the other)

Yellow Ball

• I would double-check the readings of the yellow ball for errors, but for the most part, the range was very small
• The range for the yellow ball was between 270 and 273

* We I noticed that the yellow ball is not quite as tall as the robot, so the light sensor would have to be positioned at an angle in order to get a decent sensor reading

As of Friday, January 4

• This is my wall following code that we might potentially use to find the goal. We will most likely use light sensors opposed to distance sensors but this code might come in handy if we plan on sabotaging (in a friendly manner of course) the other groups.
• Chandni and I came up with an "outline" of all the tasks that the robot needs to complete as well as an idea of how the robot wants to complete each task
• These tasks include:

• Chandni and I also plan to use a servo motor as part of the egg trapping device
• My goal this weekend is to create a code that outlines the tasks above and has coding to do each of the above tasks

As of Friday, January 11

• Chandni and I used the outline code that I wrote for wall following and applied some of the same coding that she used for Braitenburg into it
• We also made some final decisions on what sensors we will need to complete the egg hunt task

• We learned that it is going to take a little more than just Braitenburg coding to find the egg
• Light reflecting off the egg, sensor location, and similarities in sensor readings will all affect how well the photo resistors detect the egg
• We decided that the best way to detect the eggs would be to use one photo resistor sensor placed at an angle in the very front of the robot along with a distance sensor located off the center of the robot to find the egg
• If the distance sensor value is greater than 300 (robot is close to object) and the photo resistor senses either the blue or yellow egg, then we know that we found an egg opposed to the wall
• My goal for this weekend is to come up with a code for finding eggs
• I also plan on incorporating my wimp mode code into finding the egg

Allison's and Chandni's Super-Secret Egg Hunt Planning Blueprints!!

Chandni's Progress

Upto Friday, December 28:

• I have come up with a couple of designs for the egg catcher that I hope to put up soon on the planning page. Click here for more info on my Egg Trapper
• I written out an outline of sorts of how I think we could accomplish this task to some degree.

Upto Friday, January 4:

• I figured out how to change between the blue and yellow ball, using the buttons. See how!
• I am also in the process of writing a code to recognize/find the ball.
• Working with Allison, we created an outline of what we want the robot to do and how we might go about doing it:
  1. Have the robot be able to distinguish and pick the color that it wishes to find- We plan to do this by using the play and advance buttons to switch between codes. We also took sensor readings on each ball color, as shown above, so that we can use the photo resistor sensors to find the ball
  2. Have it locate an egg- To do this we will use two photo resistor sensors placed at a downward angle in the front of the robot to pick up sensor readings on anything directly in front of the create(preferably the egg since that is what it is looking for)
  3. Create an "egg trapping device" that will let us trap egg and bring to goal-This is basically going to look like a cube with all faces missing except for the top and the front, and these two would be enough to secure the egg between the front face and the robot when dropped.
  4. Home in on light source and drop egg in goal- The egg would be secured in the egg catching device. We will then use new sensor readings from two additional sensors placed on top of the robot. These sensors will be coded to detect, and follow the christmas lights at the goal.
• I have also built a version of the egg trapping device as described above.

Upto Friday, January 11:

• Allison and I have worked together to figure out how to detect the egg without bumping into walls and such. So we've decided that we should use a short range distance sensor along with a photoresistor (to make sure it is not the wall) to activate the egg trapper into dropping. I had realized that using a Braitenberg type coding would not work in this situation becuase of the colors it is looking for. That is why we are using a distance sensor to test its proximity, and the photoresistor to make sure of the color.
• We've also decided that Allison will work on finding the egg part of the code and I will work on trapping the egg and bringing and dropping to goal.
• Also, we decided that each section of the code will be defined by a variable that we will call status. Once one section of the code has completed its task, it will set the status to a certain value which inturn will be used to go into a loop of its own specified section. I decided that this was the most effective way, so that the robot completed each of it's tasks without being interrupted or forgotten.
• My design for the egg trapper is pretty much finalized, I'll just need to put it into action and see how it works.
• As said before, I am working on the Egg trapping and scoring sections. So to find the goal, we plan on using Braitenberg in coordination with the christmas lights at the end of the goal, to find and reach the goal. Because of this we will need at least 1 extra photoresistor, which I have built.
• My goal for this weekend was to learn how to use the servo motors and make final changes to the egg trapper design.

Upto Friday, January 18:

• We redesigned our egg trap, so we can get light so we can use the photoresisters.
• We remeasured the color values. We concluded that the Blue was always greater than 860 and the yellow was always less than 860.
• We also mounted and attached every sensor and platform that we were going to use. These include:

  • 4 Photoresistors
  • 1 Servo Motor
  • 1 Toggle Switch
  • 1 Long Range Distance sensor
  • 1 Cricket Display
  • 1 Platform Board

• To see how I'm doing with my Practical Exam (Check if egg is right color, bring to goal). Check out my progress!
• Created a Sensor List Page: See the Robot Sensor List

Allison's and Chandni's Super-Secret Egg Hunt Planning Blueprints!!

Allison's and Chandni's Discussion Page

There is no hope left.....