Robot Learning: Thursday, February 8, 2007

To calibrate:
>Turn on robot
>Press and hold calibrate button on speed controller (Victor)
>Move joystick full forward, then full back
>Let go of the button
Volia!

Yeah...just for remembering purposes. We calibrated the real (big) robot to the two joysticks. Wasn't as hard as we thought it would be, with the whole turning the dials and all (which we didn't really need to do). Of course, we first had to alter the code to work with the big robot and two joysticks.

We also strapped the mini-bot onto the big bot with zip-ties so we can drive the big bot around without taking apart the mini-bot. (Yes, the robot controller and radio is secured on the mini-bot. It'd take too much effort to remove them only to put them back later.) The big bot can push! It would've been able to push Mr. Rupert in the crate if it had more weight.... We haven't put the ramps on yet, so no worries yet!

For programming, we got the mini-bot back and gathered data on what the human controller would do at differing locations so we can adapt that data as a basis for how the robot should make decisions. It's rather neat, really, spotting patterns in human decisions and using that to know what to do. Kind of like beating the system in other stuff.... Tomorrow we'll probably compile the data and stick it in code language.

This year...I've noticed that building and programming have interacted and conversed more. That makes me happy. Programming shouldn't be pushed aside...even though we are the Midnight Mechanics. Haha....