Week 3: Day 1

We built two NXT “Explorer” robots.  The robots randomly search an area and detect and/or avoid obstacles.  It utilizes two different sensors, one ultrasonic and one touch.  If the ultrasonic "eyes" detect an object at about 8" or closer, the robot stops, looks left and right for the most open path and turns in that direction to continue.  If something is too low to be detected, the robot may run into it and bump its bumper, causing it to make an "oof!" sound, back up, and find a better path.


To test them, we (of course) had a battle between them..  In a confined environment, they will periodically cross paths and have to avoid each other.  On less frequent occasions, they bump into each other and then turn to drive in a different direction.  Even less frequently, they run into each and get stuck.  

Aside from the randomness of the search patterns (which cannot easily be controlled with them at this time), the operation was a great deal of fun!!!

On a side note, we checked out gapminder.org, a cool site to show global trends in an easy-to-understand format.  This could be a good site to use when my class looks at how technology will need to handle a rapidly changing world.