Get in Gear Investigation

During our investigation about Gears, we knew physically that the robot would not be able to run fast if the driven gear is faster than the driving gear. For the robot to be fast, the robot would have to have a smaller gear in the driven area and the driving gear would have to be larger in comparison. Throughout our investigation, we have actually did the ratios, using the 16:16 Ratio (1:1), 16:8 (2:1), and the 24:1 (3:1). Out of those 3, the 3:1 ratio was actually the most fastest, but sadly we didn't have enough time to add the 40:8 ratio since the sizes would not have fit.

Chapter 6 Summary

The whole idea of Chapter 6 is about Supports. Mainly every robot built or car built is in need of supports. Having Gears is one of the most important parts of supports, a gear that is placed next to a supporting beam holds the beam well and decreases the slipping of the attached parts to the gear. The best way to resist both Tension and Compression is by adding extra connectors, by adding the connectors, the Tension and the Compression would have been lessened dramatically and with the Rigid assemably, it would not easily fall apart. The way that the new idea of studless beam works is that the studless beams can add both beams with stud and without. The old one only allows stud beams to connect. A creative reason for the studless beams was to let it cover up all the parts that show out. In any case, the most important part is the NXT itself, it is needed to be placed at the center just as a shape of a triangle. The reason for placing it at the middle is because it needs to keep the front and back both balanced, if either side is imbalanced, the robot would fall back or drop forth if it moves. Mainly, all problems lead to weight balance, the NXT itself has quite a big weight, as much as 2-3 Motors, if those both were placed in the middle, both front and back would be fine, but if they were all placed at back, they would tilt. The best ideal way would to be placing the NXT at the back/front, and the Motors at the opposite like a scale balance.

Building Stratagies

We have many ideas to increase our robots chance of passing any test, but before that, the main problem is with the robot itself. Since some robots are large in length, one of their problems would be its weight on each side. Using beams attached to other beams would allow each beam to reinforce each other. The idea of our build requires absolute symmetry in order for it to preform turns and actions which include the use of all our 4 sensors. The main idea of all this is to use beams to hold the NXT and the bot together without letting it tilt while turning or breaking up while moving.

Overview of the Obsticle Course Challenge

The Obsticle Course Challenge involves using all 4 of the sensors that were learned during the whole time. The image on the right side shows the sensors that we have to use and what the recomendation was for the programming. Mostly always, we start with the sound sensor to make it move, then using the Light sensor, we add it with a motion to stop program. After that, using the touch sensor, we make it bump the wall and back up. Then, we make it turn and go straight to the second wall where we use the Ultrasound sensor to sense the wall (since this challenge says we cannot bump the 2nd wall) then turning and going straight. After that we could either dodge the cans or shoot at it, but we cannot touch it. at the end we stop by using the Light sensor again.

Robotics Chapter 1 Review: Lego Blocks

Lego cubes (also known as special Lego bricks due to their size) were not really in a cube shape. A special Lego brick as the dimensions of 1 x 1 x 1. Even though it was called "Lego cubes" it isn't really in a size of a cube since its dimensions of its area/surface area aren't the same. Years after the invention of legos, the idea of new Lego bricks with holes were called "Beams". The main idea of the Beams were to allow axles to connect on to the holes and allowing them to connect to one another. The reasons for the beams to change studless to change in the 8448 and 8840 set were because the old beams with stud only allowed right turns, and now with the studless ones, we are able to make more real-life turns. An example of beams connecting is a shape of a right triangle with a right angle degree of 90. Using 3 of the longest beams: 1 x 13, 1 x 11, and 1 x 9. To make the shape, you would use the beam with 1 x 13 as the hypotenuse, 1 x 11 as the base, and 1 x 9 as the height. A Liftarm is a very useful tool, which is also known as a half-beam; the reason that it has advantage is because it is very light weighted.

Kenny's Field Of View

The Ultrasound is a type of detector that measures obsticles and their distance from the detector itself. For our Module, we tested it with Aluminum Cans from a distance of a meter. The Results were shown on the pictures below. As you can see the picture of the measurements were all measured by how far the sensor could detect before it couln't catch a value.