Day 24: titles! titles like crazy!

or "links like nuts!"

Right on, so, Sortbot is mostly working with some glitching because the blocks bounce around a bit when it ID's so it occasionally puts black blocks in the wrong pile.

and Sortbot has an awesome new face!

he's CUTE (or CREEPY)

and an awesome new mustache!

he's DISTINGUISHED

and an awesome new video!!!

Day 23: FULL STEAM AHEAD

or "have I mentioned how excited I am about the openKinect project??"

Okay.

Okay.
so
today I thought we were ready to start taking video-
(because I always come in thinking it is going to work and then it is just a little broken and I don't know why I always think that)

So after fixing a problem that was mostly batteries,
we tried to figure out why it wasn't sorting correctly (today)
we putzed around for 3 hours unsuccessfully until Professor Berg suggested using electrical tape for the black blocks and LO. THAT FIXED IT RIGHT QUICK.

but now it is is behaving badly in some other way.

I really REALLY wanted to get a video of it working- (heck, I wanted to get it WORKING)- before Thanksgiving,
but sometimes that just isn't happening.

(always so, SO close!)
(geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez)

(happy Thanksgiving)

Day 22: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

or "i am 100 percent excited about 100 percent of interfaces 100 percent of the time"

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Day 21: aw YEAH.

WORKING ROBOT.

WORKING

ROBOT.

today we finalized some code, and fixed some little bugs that kept it from actually functioning.

 and once the color is ID'd it brings it toward the light, and SORTS IT.

and the best part is being able to run it off one command-

BAM.

Day 20: ITS GETTING BETTER ALL THE TIME

or "Stupid robot cup"
SO CLOSE.
SO CLOSE TODAY.
ALMOST SO CLOSE.

SO MUCH CODE

TODAY IT ALMOST WORKED YOU GUYS.
ALMOST.
ONCE THE KINKS ARE OUT OF THE SYSTEM WE WILL ADD THE LIGHT FOLLOWING AND THE SORT AND OH MY GOSH.

right-
so, here is our current master-code.

n is set to a value with no associated....stuff.

and then the counters in both motors are reset because-

Our "plow search function depends on the count of the motors.

The plow function only operates when the n-variable is 0.

The n variable is 1 when-

either proximity sensor sees something.

(right now it chirps for testing purposes, man it is so annoying)

so when n=1, the search function is active-

it pretty much, just, um, searches.

yep.

and then once it grabs on the color is ID'd

 so that is neat. yep.

19: everything is terrible forever

Pretty much all the hardware things were broken today.

changing n= shuts this thing down, and that is pretty neat.

but we did write part of a code for the search pattern, i am thinking about how we are going to make this work without being terrible like this,
i have a pretty good idea i think using a second variabl,
we shall see.

Day 18:CURRENTLY WEARING: SPACECAMP SWEATER

or "sometimes these links are serious?? i guess??"

Working on getting sortBot (it really needs a name that is not sortBot, it is just kind of sad sounding)

to recognize colors

so now we have this-

held together with tape and DREAAAAMS.

made mostly of tape and wires.

and also purple pipecleaners (this is what science looks like)

the two black boxes with circles that look like spiders eyes are the distance sensors.

and the thing you see in the middle is a switch- 

the switch is meant to trigger the reflectance sensor-

which is kind of hidden underneath it from this angle.

wires like crazy!!

We also added a speaker for testing the code we've assembled this far-

(it is great, it picks up interference from the motors reversing,

interference goes in, totally great noises come out)

(so anyway, on to actually important things-)

so now we've got the search code from before

and a second code that identifies color when the switch is pressed.

right now the 'b' and 'w' methods just beep at different tones for testing.

It works pretty well!

it is correctly IDing colors anyway!

The search code was less effective today for some reason, 

I figure it is because of inconsistencies in the proximity sensors or maybe their positioning?

It needs some work.

Day 17:BREAKING NEWS

or "Szczotka do kostki"

TODAY:
working on getting sortBot to hone in on blocks,

we added a second distance sensor and then hacked together some code
it's actually pretty much the light following code we used a couple challenges back.

The problem with the distance sensors is that they work by measuring the reflected angle of a beam
(which is neat!)
but, inside the focus of the sensor it reads distances in reverse, so the sensors have to mounted pretty far back to get an accurate read.

We've got some issues with range where it will just sort of wander in circles (a result of slight differences in the sensors i assume) if it doesn't 'see' anything.

(it also sometimes locks on to things that its not meant to look for like chairs, storage boxes, laptops, shoes, its own wires and also things that are not there)

I think that we can correct for the wandering if we come up with some sort of simple search pattern, we will have to see how easy (or probably not) that is though.

NEXT:
color recognition

BRAINSTORMING:
companionBot