Building our Robot, Mk II
Although the robot took the performance award at Swindon, we knew that
we had not achieved enough points to compete seriously at the national
final. We re-engineered the robot before Loughborough to try to achieve
more speed and more navigational accuracy. We also boxed in the wheels
to stop them getting caught on objects on the mat. We finished up with
the robot below.
We did speed up the robot but we ran out of time to spend adjusting
the programs. As a result the robot did not perform as well on the table –we
will try to improve that for the European Open Championships.
Building our Robot, Mk I
 We started
to work on our robot in September, meeting in a house every Wednesday
morning. We started by trying out the robots in the Constructopedia.
The main problem was that it is very difficult to make those robots drive
straight. We consulted Building Robots with LEGO Mindstorms and
decided to use a dual differential (see right).
 This worked
well but it was too wide, so we adapted it. The model we ran at Swindon
(see left) had one motor for turning and one for going straight with
a third for operating the attachments that carried out the missions.
It used a light sensor and a rotation sensor.
We have three attachments (see below). The plough and the prongs are
on the robot at the start of each round. The plough gives a large face
to hit the dolphin sling and a foot to nudge the shark. The prongs allow
us to stand up three flags at a time. The grabber collects the crates,
the reef and the artefacts.
Building the Challenge Models
It took 15 of us three hours one Wednesday morning to turn a box of
Lego bricks into the models for the mat.
 
But we got there at last...
Getting Started
   
|
