June 28, 2011 Practice

Today was a small meeting with only Jared and I, due to Ian and Jaret both taking family vacations. Together, we accomplished creating a claw and giving the robot a better rear "wheel". We also discussed ideas for our claw and robot. In the programming department, I made a program that starts in a box and travels to the other end than turns around. To help with motors, I created a global variable for motor offset. In my opinion, this was one of our most successful meetings yet.

Here is a small sample of code from the program that turns at line (I did not define the functions):
task main()
{
  int universal_speed = 50;
  int light_threshold = 45;
  straight(universal_speed, false);
  wait1Msec(1250);
  straight(universal_speed, true);
  while(1 == 1)
  {
    while(SensorValue[Light_R] >= light_threshold)
    {
      straight(universal_speed, false);
    }
    straight(universal_speed, true);
    turn_r(universal_speed, light_threshold);
  }
}

June 21 Meeting

Today we practiced using the joystick to control the robot for the first time. We also started to explore the gyroscopic sensor and programing with it. Tyler also tried to follow a course by detecting lines. Overall a very good practice.
:)

New way to practice your RobotC at home

Thanks to Carnegie Mellon and The Computer Science Social Network (cs2n.org) we've got a great new software that you can download for free at home. I've tested some of our programs in the simulator and its pretty realistic.   It will let you use the RobotC at home and simulate the Lego robot on your computer.  You can download the software HERE.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25222170/RVW_NXT_TechAlpha.exe

For more information on the H99 NXT Simulator for RobotC try these links:

http://www.cs2n.org/h99

http://www.cs2n.org/h99/learn_lego


Try it out and let me know if what you think.

Next Practice: Tuesday June 14th at 4:00 PM,

Terry

Practice Tuesday June 7th 2011

Today we did things.... THINGS, not just any little "things". Big, no BIG things, we made a fast line following program that could line follow with 2 light sensors. It wass very fast and further reinforced my skills. We learned about gyro and acceleratorion sensors. We had to also attached a second light sensor and attached a gyro and acc. sensors. We sadly took down our sound and Ultra-Sonic sensor. :''(

Peace OUT

Meeting Schedule for June 2011

Just a quick note about team practice next week.  There is a conflict with scouts and our scheduled FTC meeting next Saturday.  

After discussion with parents, it sounds like Tuesdays (4pm-6pm) will be a good backup day for weeks when Saturday won’t work.  Through the summer, if there is a conflict with 2 or more of the team, just let me know and we will plan to meet the Tuesday before our regularly scheduled meeting.

• Practice: Tue June7th
• No Practice Saturday June 11th (Scouts)
• Practice: Tue June 14th
  
• No Practice Saturday June 18th (Tyler/Ian out of town)
• Resume Regular Practice: Saturday June 25th

 Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

June 4, 2011 Practice



Ian, Tyler, Jaret discussing a flow chart.
Flowcharting is a necessary skill in
the FTC.



In this practice session, we worked on tasks like counting a total number of lines and line following with directional commands. Ian and Jaret worked on additional challenges and Jared was getting caught up after his baseball games. He was working on line following. I accomplished the main goals with support from the team. We all fixed the issues from practice two and quickly edited the program to get everything working. We also improved our note-taking skills by learning flowcharting. Our meeting would be called a good use of time by all team members and coaches. We are strongly looking forward to really getting to work with TETRIX sensors and servos.


Jared debugging code.



Flowchart

I choose to use a "System" flowchart. You bassically use a diffrent shape for each command. This allows for easier reading and for good uniformed organization. They can be used for different purposes ie. solving a problem or designing a procces. In some cases, such as me, it may be easier to understand a flowchart than a program.

www.wikipedia.com/flowcharts