Done:

3-27: separates colors based on height, raises arm and releases the odd-tribble-out.

• Proofed tribble grabber

3-30: narrows down potential piles based on distance between x- and y-centers.
4-3: modified arm mount: added second servo; adding enough power to support Botguy.

• Attached ET sensor on arm to sense tribbles.
• Shortened the entire robot, easier fit into start box.
• Re-positioned camera to the top; allowing a more focused view of the area inside claw.
• wrote skeletal state machine for both seeding and head-to-head legobots
• wrote skeletal folders for legobot
• worked on the constants to make the legobot code compile
• improved the tribble pile detector, possible issue: umbrellas and solarium?
  • rotates, defaulting to CCW and centers in on specified tribble pile.
• 4/4/08
  • finished the skeleton for the state machine
• 4/5/08
  • worked on synchronizing the claw with the two servos
• 4/6/08
  • created code for raising and lowering the arm;
  • drove foward, grab cup, dump it over the side!!
  • Moved ET to a better position
• 4/7/08
  • wrote code to drop cup controllably
  • created a saftey loop to stop create from driving into wall if it does not see cup
• 4/8/08
  • functionalized the code for the motors
  • tweeked the grab cup and drop cup commands
• 4/9/08
  • improved cup-grabbing system
  • noticed some potential issues w/ grabber
• 4/10/08
  • Completed cup grabbing, back-up and rotation
  • upon backup, Create is too far away from the tribble pile to see it. Hard-code forward movement is needed.
• 4/12/08
  • Completed grabbing first tribble pile with 80-95% success
  • Dumping green tribbles in solarium with high success
  • rotating and finding second pile not good as of yet.
• 4/13/08
  • finished getting first tribble pile into solarium
  • started and finished getting second orange over green pile into the solarium
  • started and finished getting to the first green over orange pile and grabbing with the claw
• 4/15/08
  • Made changes to code to account for ET blocking tribbles
  • Made bot spin farther when dropping so it is more likely to drop all of the greens into the solarium
  • Need to get third and fourth piles!
• 4/17/08
  • Attempted to improve upon the previous code; failed =(
  • The Good: Create will now wait for the start light
  • The Bad: Messed up distance on driving towards side of shelter.
  • The Ugly: When adding a second check to improve accuracy in grabbing the second, the Create is too close to detect the second pile and turns too much. Change the second look to only find the largest orange blog; make sure the arm is up.
• 4/18/08
  • Strengthened the arm of the claw
  • Fixed ET sensor cable problems (cable too tight, cable getting caught on screw and camera)
  • Moved the XBC over a peg to get less tension on the ET cable
  • Greatly improved aiming and grabbing
  • Will usually get orange tribbles in shelter
• 4/19/08
  • Foolproofed cup grab/ go to wall
  • Consistently has to drop orange into solarium, needs fixing
  • Picks up orange pile and drives North of Shelter.
  • REALIZATION: if camera isn't seeing stuff, reboot.
• 4/20/08
  • Started cloning process of CreateBot
  • moved centering functions to crCamera.ic
  • finished commenting!!
• 4/21/08
  • Added in failure modes for the first eight or so states
  • Tried to make the camera vision smaller for tracking the blobs so we don't run into space.
• 4/22/08
  • Added square-ups on North Solarium wall and East Shelter wall; still needs refinement.
• 4/25/08
  • Grabbing 2nd pile: somewhat repetitive
  • Grabbing 1st pile: quite repetitive
  • Grabbing Cup: way too repetitive
• 4/26 & 27/08
  • Major proofing for grabbing piles
  • works with lens cap on and off
  • grabs and dumps all four piles
  • code refinements and hardware tweaks needed for use of tower
• 4/27/08
  • Created a prototype storage area for top tribbles, refinement needed
• 4/29/08
  • increase squared-ups near shelter
  • phantom grab near shelter
  • check distances on bridge-crossing
• Further Proof grabber
  • Sometimes the orange tribble gets stuck with the green tribbles
• Fix ET Cable

To Do:

Hardware

priority

• !loose parts on claw
• !stopper for bottom claw
• !remove obstruction from stationary wall of claw
• grabber that can sepparate tribbles
• mounting for the grabber arm assembly

secondary

• modify arm so it can also pick up cups
• bins for holding odd colored tribbles
• different mounting positions for the camera

Software

• redefine drive commands so the create can drive backwards
• Test camera orientations to determine optimal positioning

Completed: