Subject:
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what I learned... (Re: My toilet is flushing normally!)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto
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Date:
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Mon, 15 Dec 2003 15:51:11 GMT
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Viewed:
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524 times
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In lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto, Chris Magno wrote:
> > It was a great test of the hardware and software. I have some changes already
> > in progress...
>
>
> so tell us, what did you learn?
Well, sense I know you won't be building a robot, I'll tell you what I learned.
But don't tell anyone else.
I think the hardest part of this challenge mechanically, will be putting chips
in the game board. Scanning the board is a simple exercise in two dimensions.
But there are some extra variables that are introduced when dropping chips.
For example, my building table at home is not level. In fact, the two leafs
(sp?) both angle down in the middle. That actually means with my robot on one
plate, and the game board on another plate, the distance between the
chip-dropper hanging on my robot and the top of the connect-four board can vary
about 1 stud based on how it sits on the table. I think 1/4 stud is enough to
make it miss the slot.
By the end of the day, (after some fine tuning) my robot would miss drop about 1
chip per game. That really didn't cause a problem, because the kids would just
grab the chip, and put it back in.
> did anyone win vs your robot?
Actually, several did. When I say several, I mean about 3. I figure it played
around 60 games. Around 50 were played on level 4 (looking 4 moves ahead) and
the others on 6 or 7. It didn't lose any games when it was playing ABOVE level
4.
Just so you know, on level 4, it looks at about 2000 possible moves. And, for
level 8, it looks at over 5 million moves. Right now, it can play a game on
level 8 in about 15 minutes.
> did you discover
> flaws in your system, that show weakness in programming??
I did have a couple 'tricks' in the software, that were ment to speed things up.
They wouldn't make it any smarter, just a tiny bit faster. They didn't work,
and the difference in speed was not worth the problems, so I took them out, and
ran most of the day without them.
It was pretty fun. I had one kid bet me $10(us) that he could beat it. I
didn't request he pay the bet after his loss.
Overall, it was a very good test. And fun, too. I had one coach thank me,
because he always knew where to find his team. :)
Steve
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Message has 1 Reply:
Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: My toilet is flushing normally!
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| (...) Guy # 2 was a company called "drain works" a small local guy who grew from a small mom and pop to a mini fleet of 2 dozen service vehicles. (...) so tell us, what did you learn? did anyone win vs your robot? did you discover flaws in your (...) (21 years ago, 15-Dec-03, to lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto)
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