Robotics Project

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Robotics

During the robotics project, we learned how to apply Python code towards making
a robot move around and follow certain directions. First we imported the basic bot
coding from "pybot", then tuned the coding to fitting our needs for each day, such as
following lines and finding certain colors.

On our first day working with robotics, we were able to put together a
robot with the provided pieces. The robot was able to move around using coding
in Python. This robot's functions on Day 1 were very basic, and the robot was
unable to understand surroundings yet.








On Day 2, we added on a color sensor to the robot. This allowed the robot to detect
colors that were below and in front of it. With some extra programming, we were also
able to make the robot stop when it passed over a certain color. For the purposes of
the project, the robot stopped whenever it travelled over the color yellow. The robot
also had an attached sensor on the second day. However, we were unable to program the
sensor correctly in time, so we created a "wall" with more pieces for the robot to keep
it from moving the color sensor when it ran into objects instead; it worked surprisingly well.



On Day 3, our objective was to make the robot follow a blue line on the ground. This
made us take off the "wall" from Day 2 in order to put the color sensor in the center
of the robot's front. This was mainly done because with the color sensor on the left side
of the robot, we were unable to get the robot to walk in a straight line.




After a lot of trial and error, including one completely wrong code, our team was able to
get the robot to follow the blue line and stop on the green paper at the end of the trail.
It took much more testing than the two previous days, and definitely had a lot more application
in order to fix issues than other projects we have done in the past. Much of what "should have
worked in theory" proved to not pull through exactly how we planned, and we had to inch closer
towards more accurate movements with the robot.




On Day 4, we had a small competition with the other groups using the sensors. The goal was
to have your robot the last one to have its sensor pushed. So, in order to make it as hard as
possible to have our sensor pushed, we had our robot go around in a circle. Our robot did not
push any other robot's sensor, but it did last a while in the competition. Spinning around
proved to be a decent tactic.