We've set the lego component aside for a week or so to concentrate on other areas.
The goal was to have a frame - built by the middle school students - and a control system built by same, get together. Here's the frame in the home stretch.
And with the control board mounted. I should point out to the uninitiated that this is a fair degree of complexity. I've seen a few challenged high school teams accomplish not much more than this in a full six week build season. Of course we did cut a few corners. Notice the duct taped on bumpers!
Across the work space others have been working on programming tricks. We already had what we call "Puppy Mode", where the robot's light tracking system will follow a person holding a reflective target. It was just another step forward into "Dog and Tennis Ball" mode. The sensors are set to recognize the shape and color of an orange beach ball. Carry it, toss it, roll it across the room. The robot follows it like a loyal but none too bright Labrador. Sorry for the low quality picture but you can just see the tracking cross hairs on the display screen...
For the remaining sessions we will continue to program on both the existing high school robot and the newly born middle school one. The CAD team has been designing and cutting custom parts. Simple things like a battery holder but still....these are just kids.
Really smart kids.
You be raising the ability of the next wave to problem solve and overcome. God bless, amigo.
ReplyDeleteSure tryin'. We have ups and downs but overall steady progress. I expect to be obsolete in about two years and will be relegated to the enjoyable status of "that old guy hanging around for reasons nobody can remember any more".
ReplyDeleteTW