first_move()
- My first move function was a last minute addition that helped the program be efficient.
- The function would start immediately after the play or advance button was pressed to select a ball color.
- First, the Create needs to turn away from the goal. In my program, the Create would rotate for 4 seconds, and the number of tenths of a second were shown on the Cricket display.
- To make it easier to start searching for balls, the Create would then drive forward.
find_ball()
- This was my task for the practical examination, so for more information please see my exam page.
- A long distance IR sensor, a photoresistor, and two servos were utilized in this task.
- The Create needed to start with the claw up so the distance sensor could work, so my first task was to put the claw in the up position.
- To look for a ball, the Create would rotate in place and constantly take distance readings. If the distance changed by more than a small amount, that meant that a ball was in its path. I displayed the distance value on the Cricket display.
- I learned that when the IR sensor goes out of range, unreasonable values appear that need to be excluded.
- When a ball was detected, the Create would drive towards it.
- When the distance was less than 12 cm (the depth of the cargo bay), the Create would stop and the claw would lower on the ball.
- After that, a photoresistor took the value of the ball. If the value was high, the ball was yellow. If the value was low, the ball was blue.
- Lorraine also wrote a code for this, which I didn't know.
- I learned to check for infinite loops while doing this!
find_goal()
- This entire function was meant to find the goal and throw the ball in.
- Two photoresistors and a snap-action switchwere used in this task.
- The Create would start out rotating, displaying light values.
- If it sensed the maximum light value, the Create would drive towards it.
- The problem was when the Create drove towards the light, it would immediately release the ball rather than waiting for the snap action switch to be hit.
- Lorraine and I both wrote code once again, but we couldn't get either person's portion to work.
safe()
- The goal of this function was to make a quick way to restart the code.
- When the Create was lifted up, the program would stop running.
- When the Create was put back down, a button press would reset it.
bump()
- The bump sensors we made were supposed to be used to avoid the sides.
- Due to time constraints, the code I wrote never got tested or implemented.
reject_egg()
- This function was meant to throw out any ball that was not of the selected color.
- The claw would lift up, and the Create would rotate for a second to rid itself of the ball.
Other
I know my partner spent as much time as I did working on this project for sure, but I think she may have spent more time working on idle tasks rather than looking at the big picture for the more important tasks.
