Week 2
Robotics
Robotics is the field that involves designing, building, and using robots to execute tasks that are repetitive, or difficult for humans. Robots has mechanical design, electronics, control systems, sensors, and actuators. They are used in areas like manufacturing, healthcare, and space exploration.
Computer science
Computer science is the study of computers and how they work, including their design and programming. It involves understanding algorithms, data structures, software development, and hardware. Computer science is used to create software, solve problems, and develop new technologies.
Zumi Robot
The Zumi Robot's purpose is to avoid obstacles and redirect people when in a crisis. It does this by sensing color in front of it and reacting base off the color it sees. Beyond just dodging obstacles, The Zumi robot is also great in emergencies. In situations like fires or earthquakes, the Zumi Robot can help lead people to safety. It recognizes colors that mark safe routes or exits and guides people in need to these safe spots, helping to reduce panic and keep everyone calm.
For the coding we needed Zumi to avoid obstacles and turn to other sides so that it can continue driving to other places instead of getting stuck. In the Zumi Dashboard they offered tutorials for coding and we could choose to code in blocks as well. A specific tutorial that helped us to code was the “Obstacle Avoidance”. Another thing that helped us a lot was using the Zumi Library References, so that we could know all the functions that we can use in the Zumi Library and their parameters. We opted to code in Python instead of blocks because we could personalize more with it. Jupyter Notebook was where we have done our code because it was directly connected to the Zumi Dashboard. We used the two front IR sensors of Zumi, so whenever they are triggered the Zumi turns to a different direction, and if only one of them is triggered, Zumi turns a little bit in the opposite direction of the sensor that was triggered.
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Tamiya Robot
The Tamiya Tracked vehicle is equipped with an Arduino, touch sensors, and an ultrasonic Sensor. The purpose of the vehicle is to navigate around obstacles and with its tracks, it can do this in more harsh environments.
Our tamiya bot uses the front bumper switch to detect if it runs into an obstacle. Then, it turns to avoid the obstacle and uses the ultrasonic sensor to detect if the path forward is clear. Once it is, the robot turns and drives forward again.
IMG_5588.MOVIMG_5594.MOVRedBot Robot
The Redbot Robot sees and follows a line on the floor using a line sensor and it is also equipped with bumper sensors in order to avoid obstacles. The line sensor is for the robot to guide and lead people to saftey following a safe pathway.
PROCESS
The process started off well. We used the official RedBot library to quickly write the code. However, we ran into some issues. The middle sensor always outputted a slightly lower value, the bumper sensor always gave a high output, and there was difficulty uploading code to the Arduino. After several hours, we fixed the issues by trading RedBots with another group.
