Larry is my first robot. I made him with the Lego EV3 kit (review later).
I started working on one of the 5 robots that are suggested by Lego; but, bailed after I got the base done. I couldn't see any reason to make a tractor robot with a spinny looking propeller on the front. By the time I had the tracks together, I was very familiar with the Lego framework and decided I wanted to start playing with the ultrasonic sensor and the programming.
For those firefighters in this blogsphere, Larry is programmed to do a left handed search. I could put a camera on top of Larry and you would see my house from the perspective of a cat or small dog. The whole point was to learn how to program the brick to do things.
Larry is in pretty good shape right now; but, there are some problems that need to be overcome in Larry V2, such as:
* The ultrasonic sensor has a narrow field of vision. Larry will hit an object not directly in front of Larry; but, in line with one of the tracks. When that track stops and the other keeps moving, Larry moves toward the object and gets hung up.
* The ultrasonic sensor will look over an obstacle that is only a couple inches high. Larry will hit this object with gusto.
* Larry is not programmed to stop. He will search until he dies, or gets hung up. Since Larry also doesn't know what he's looking for, he keeps searching.
* Larry needs stiffer britches. His tracks kinda cant inward.
* Larry has no concept of gravity requiring a surface to move on or injury. If started on a table, Larry will charge off the end of the table, fully expecting to survive the fall.
Other than that, Larry will do the left handed search pretty well. V2 will fix the first 2 problems by moving the ultrasonic sensor down, midway between the top and the bottom and if possible, include a turret that allows Larry to look left and right. I will also adjust the programming so that Larry looks left occasionally to make sure there isn't an open room that needs to be searched prior to continuing forward.
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