Subject:
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Racing towards oblivion
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto
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Date:
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Sun, 3 Mar 2002 02:50:29 GMT
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Viewed:
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1274 times
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In lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto, Iain Hendry writes:
> "Chris Magno" <cmagno@rogers.com> wrote in message
> news:3C80E237.29D2593@rogers.com...
>
> > this is a nice idea, BUT the library is only so long. and... we would
> > have to find a smooth flat surface for that entire distance. at best
> > it might be 3 tables with a bit of tape to join the seams.
> >
> > would you recommend walls along the sides??
>
> NO! No walls. :)
Agreed. No walls. But there should be a line that the robots can follow so
they go reasonably straight. Even the best robots will wander a little if
you don't give some sort of clue as to where they should be going.
I suggest that the finish 'zone' be a strip of wide (4 or 6 inch)
retroreflective tape, right at the end of the table. (Easily available from
marine stores, but trucks use them as well, so there must be a place they
buy it, and at least here in Seattle, hardware stores often carry thinner
rolls of it.) You definitely DON'T want just a thin strip of black tape,
just because with the relatively low processing speed of the RCX, a racer at
top speed, racing towards oblivion, might not see it! Anyone know what the
maximum polling rate of a light sensor is using 1.5 or 2.0 firmware?
> Okay. 3 tables of very close heightnessey. Duct tape across the seams (or
> some coloured tape with equiv. light sensor values. Oh no! My phone is
> ringing.). 200 mm from the end, stripe of electrical tape (19 mm width or
> whatever it comes in... is it 25 mm?). Starting position is COMPLETLY
> RANDOMLY SELECTED by a kid from the crowd.
>
> "I want them to start um..... HERE!" ::child points to the ceeling::
That room in the library seems about 40 feet long (though I might be way
off) and we had tables pretty much lining one end to the other for RTL 10.
There's no reason that can't be done again, and with a bunch of thin wooden
wedges, most of the row of tables could be brought fairly closely into
alignment. Tape across edges, and perhaps a long roll of butcher paper with
two parallel black stripes already painted or taped on it could be used to
make it even enough to race on.
> I'm loving this. I'm really, really, loving this. Because okay. Now you have
> to figure out, "hello self, what is the maximum speed I can make my robot
> crank at, and NOT fly off the edge at with a given stopping distance?"
> Because our start point is variable, again, you can't program it to go a
> distance and start to slow down before the stripe.
Yeah, this would be really cool to do!
> Questions for everyone:
>
> 1) Who's interested in this?
> 2) How do we score? First person across the line without going off the edge?
> I think that's probably the best way to do it. Do we factor in distance from
> the edge or what not? I think that sort of becomes irrelevant, speed is the
> primary focus (because your ultimate top speed is limited by how quickly you
> can brake).
> 3) Do we limit the number of RCX's and battery boxes and what not, or let it
> go all out? I'm *kind of* leaning toward limiting, because you just know
> someone's going to come up with a 27-volt seriesd batteryboxed monster :)
> 4) If we do this, do we run this as a tandem event (ala sumo/blockstacking
> events)? I can't remember if we decided last time that was a bad idea or
> not.
2-> I say race in pairs, and the winner gets a point. Winner is the racer
who's nose crosses the finish line first, and doesn't fall off the table.
Depending on how many entries there will be, one possibility is to race each
pair. Since races won't take long, even doing a lot of them would work, as
long as the next pair is getting ready to go right after the last pair leaves.
On the other hand, with twelve or fifteen racers, even that would take a
while. In that case you do some sort of elimination or reduction. First
possibility: any robot that's lost two races in a row is disqualified from
further runs. Second possibility: leave the entire contest open as
'personal challenges': "I challenge Iain's racer." A winner will become
evident fairly soon. (Keep tabs of how many races each racer has been in,
and what percentage they've won.)
3-> Perhaps the best thing to do would be to only allow a single RCX, and
verify that only a standard set of 6 batteries is being put inside! I don't
think anyone should build an 18 or 27 volt monster. On the otherhand, the
extra weight ( = inertia) of all those batteries is going to be pretty hard
to stop!
--
David Schilling
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: 110 VAC powered lego motors
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| "Chris Magno" <cmagno@rogers.com> wrote in message news:3C80E237.29D259...ers.com... (...) NO! No walls. :) Okay. 3 tables of very close heightnessey. Duct tape across the seams (or some coloured tape with equiv. light sensor values. Oh no! My phone (...) (23 years ago, 2-Mar-02, to lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto)
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