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Lab4Amber

Wimp Mode Write-Up

   The goal of the wimp mode lab was to imitate a demo that was built into the Create. When pushed, the Create would start driving. If the bump sensors were hit, the Create would turn 90 degrees in the opposite direction. Once the Create traveled two feet straight, it would stop moving.

   My final wimp mode program works very well. I had quite a few problems while working to that point. The first thing I learned was how important a proper flow chart is. Without it, I was getting confused by all the loops. Once a good flow chart was written, it was simple to derive the code. A good thing to note is that the loops cannot overlap, but they can be inside each other.  Another thing that I learned is that negative angles do not work on the Create. You need to set the initial angle to something different and decrement to the desired angle. 

   One big problem I had was making the Create stop when it was supposed to. I put a stop command at the end of the major loop in the program, and it would not stop, no matter how many updates or delays. When I put another stop command at the beginning of the loop, the Create finally stopped. I don’t really understand why this is, but I think it needs to be investigated further. 

   The safe mode was definitely a big advancement. Now we don’t have to program in each individual safety check and it can be used for all future programs. It also gave some experience in function writing. 

   Something unusual I noticed when testing the program was that the force required to make the distance sensors detect motion was quite a bit higher in our program than in the provided wimp mode demo. The makers of the Create must have some other tools to utilize that we do not.

   After my first demo, I noticed something strange. When the Create was waiting to be pushed, safe mode was delayed by almost a minute. Once I took a second look at my code I noticed that one of my loops had not checked for safe. The delay made sense because it had to run through the whole program to get to another safety check.

Flow chart for wimp Δ

Code for wimp Δ