PmWiki | Robots / Jasminegandhibraitenbergplan

Plan of action

Bratienburg vehicle will be set at a 3 minute timer with a mission to find the bright light (photophilic) or run away from it (photophoebic). If/when it "sees" a bright light, the robot must stop 30 cm in front of it and play a song or beep to signal that it has found "life". In order to do this the plan is to have the Create:

wander
poll the sensors continuously
if a change in values is detected, it should move towards it
if the Create hits a pre-set value, that means that the Create has found the light
stop
beep/play song

To make it wander I plan on using a modified wimp mode where the bumpers will be activated to roatate 90 degrees in the event that it bumps into something. That way the course of the robot will be random. In addition, it will also be moving forward 2 feet each time. In the end, it should end up in an area where the light is more visible and the light sensors can detect a change in values. To begin, I do need to test the Create's sensor values at different distances. Then I can plug in those values into my code to make conditional statements for the robot to follow. I would also like to experiment with different locations for my might sensors. I want to be able to find the most efficient spots for them to be taped, so the visibility is clear.

Updates

currently, I am content with my code. It works to a satisfactory level. It can detect the light and beeps when it gets close to 30 cm. I was also pleased with the added bonus of a photophoebic code, which works quite well. I am still having trouble with the time though. It stops and has a red power LED at 3 minuutes but I can't seem to have it reset back. The guidelines state that if the Create is unable to find the light after 3 mintes, the user should be able to press the play button again and reset the timer to another 3 minutes. That little piece...the reset part...is unsuccessful right now. If I play around with my code in attempt to fix the problem, my the robot does not function correctly at all. So at this point, I am somewhat scared to make any changes. I will keep trying though. But, I am not so sure if another few hours of work to adjust the timer is really needed if I have the bonus completed. Maybe the two will weigh out at the end. We'll see....

latest update: I used my previous lab of the braitenburg code to find the light that is located over the net. In addition, I also created a function that can reject the balls if the worng color is trapped by the robot. For example, if it is set to look for a blue balla and it ends up picking up a yellow one, I made a small procedure that the Create could follow to move the ball away from its field of vision. For more specifics, you will just have to wait and see on the day of the competiton!!