Nov 30, 2010: Monday

Today, the whole class finally got down to work. I finished doing the bibliography and started on the groups Prezi presentation which I'm supposed to put everything that the group worked on. The other people in my group started on the programming. Unfortunately, One of our teammates was absent today so we did a little less than everybody else.

Nov 22, 2010: Monday

Today, our group worked on setting up a design brief together. I think it turned out pretty well, again, due to the fact that we were on a very short and limited time. We included safety features, colors of lines, and what objects the track might have. After we finished making one up, we sent it to our teacher. I hope we get a good grade!

Nov 18, 2010: Wednesday

 Today, the class saw a video on batteries. I didn't know why we watched it considering our project is getting closer to the deadline. I thought it spent a big part of our class time for no reason. The video was fun to watch, nonetheless. After that, our group started to share the bibliographies we had. We haven't printed it though. Everyone in the class is leaving and it's pretty rowdy, so until next time.

Nov 16, 2010: Tuesday

Today, our group got a lot of work done.  We did part of the programming and started figuring out the dimensions for our project since we're going to have to change it a little. We didn't have a choice on how large our mat (where we would conduct our experiment)so we had to start adjusting the dimensions of our plan, so it would fit in the mat. We're currently working on that now. As for the programming, our group hasn't gotten the chance to test it.

Design Specification

Design Specification

The obstacle course that our rover/robot will use to simulate exploring the surface of Mars has the following specifications.

Our lines will include the color blue, yellow, orange, green, red, and black. Objects that might be in Mars are going to try to be reflected onto our project. Such objects include a crashed rover, a rock, a volcano, a deceased bot, defective rover, and a rover pod. All of these robots will be stationary. There will also be two Hexbugs moving around the course for the robot to maneuver around them. These will be non-stationary objects. The course will be 182.88cm by 228.6cm. There won’t be any special tasks the robot must do to complete the course except to move around such objects listed above and to avoid the non-stationary objects swiftly.

Design Brief: Nov. 12, 2010- Friday

Today, we began our design brief for the project we are currently working on. I think I did a pretty good job at it considering we only had about 30 minutes on it. So, as our teacher suggested, I will post my design brief from our project. I will post my design Specification in the next blog post.

Design Brief

While investigating human ingenuity and mechanical versus human environments, we use an NXT Lego Mindstorms robot. This robot needs to explore the surface of Mars. We will program it to complete an obstacle course which the robot will complete in less that __10__ minutes. 

We will program/teach the robot to complete the course using the following program blocks: We will use the light sensor block, the move block, and the stop block.

The course is more realistic and interesting by focusing certain design elements. We chose to include moving elements that you might find in Mars like a rover that cant communicate with Earth anymore so its moving around with the same system. That will be represented by Hexbugs moving around the course.

In order to make sure that all safety issues are addressed we include the following safety notices:We will stay outside the course while the robot is moving around it and stop it when it seems to have gotten out of the track. And we will also not move around while the robot is moving so we wont trip on it

Nov. 10, 2010: Wednesday

Today, we kept on working on what we started on Monday. Our teacher made us do a research paper on Issac Asimovs three laws of robotics, and we have been working on that since Monday. I think it's a good way to learn more about the laws but in depth. Today though, our group also went and asked the teacher how we could improve our grade for the project we had been assigned to a while ago. She said we need to have non-stationary objects. I still don't know how we're going to make the robot avoid them...