Subject:
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Re: September 27th SMART meeting at Redmond Library
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.org.us.smart
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Date:
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Thu, 2 Oct 2008 00:59:33 GMT
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Viewed:
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12500 times
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In lugnet.org.us.smart, Craig Zupke wrote:
> So, any details around exactly what we will be doing and when? I've never been
> to Brick Con so have no idea how it works or where the SMART display would fit
> in. I looked at the schedule and it seems like people will be moving their stuff
> in on Thursday or Friday, but there is also an entry for Robot City in the
> schedule for Saturday from 9:30-10:30AM. So, are we going to have something set
> up that lasts a long time (say all day) or are we only going to have something
> going for an hour? Either way, inquiring minds want to know what to expect so
> that we can properly manage other activities like soccer games.
>
> As for the uncertainty around the robot city being pulled off--is that due to
> software issues, or lack of robots? It seems like three would be an acceptable
> minimum to at least run around the streets in some sort of coordinated fashion
> so I hope that lack of robots wouldn't be a problem. I can understand if the
> software was the bottleneck as it does seem like a pretty challenging project.
BrickCon has probably a dozen or more LEGO themes represented. Each theme is on
a set of tables. SMART is hosting the MINDSTORMS robotic display. We'll be at
the back of the room, near the curtains.
The public hours for BrickCon are from 11 to 3 on Saturday and Sunday. If you
just want to come hang out, see what cool creations there are, etc., pick any
time during those hours to come visit. It's $6 entry. I'd recommend coming for
at least two hours to be able to see everything. But even that will be fairly
rushed. If you are really tight for time, and just interested in one theme, pick
an hour or so to come see it.
The private con hours are considerably longer, and include things like the
keynote speech, classes, competitions, etc. If you haven't registered yet, you
still can, either for the entire weekend (including Friday), or just for a
single day (if you show up before 10am). But if you're not interested in these
extra activities, just show up for the public hours.
I'm giving a talk on how we put the robot city together (or more likely, how we
failed in trying :-) at 9:30 on Saturday. That's part of the private con, before
public hours.
If we manage to get everything working before then, the city will be "on
display" during public hours. If not, I think we have an alternative.
By the way, anyone in SMART that wants to bring a robot that does something
cool, please do! We've got plenty of space.
So what IS the current status of the city?
Gus was working on the robot-movement code: line tracking, turning, intersection
detection, etc.
Mark was working on the BlueTooth communications module.
I was working on the navigation software, on brick and on PC.
The three of us met in early September and concluded that we wouldn't be able to
finish our grand plans in a month, so we scaled back. Toss the BT communication,
and toss the robots doing anything interesting at their destinations, for
instance. That meant, unfortunately, I needed to completely start over with the
navigation code.
On Saturday's meeting, Gus and I sat down and for the first time put our two
pieces of code together. Amazingly, it was a very quick integration. Both of us
wrote our pieces of code to make it easy for the other person, and in less than
half an hour (if I remember right) we had the two parts talking to each other!
And even more importantly, had a single robot driving around, knowing where it
was! Of course there were some snags, otherwise I wouldn't be so skeptical still
whether the city will be on display this weekend. The rest of the meeting we
worked frantically to iron out these problems.
By the end, we "almost" had it working. But it'd felt that way ever since the
start of the meeting. So during dinner afterwards, we decided that Gus would
look into putting together an alternative display, while I'd continue trying to
solve these problems.
Right now, the navigation part *seems* to be working perfectly. The line
tracking also works very well. The only remaining issue at this point *seems* to
be missing the silver markers once in a while. The problem is that this might be
just one more problem left to fix before the next one, and then the next one
after that, and so on, are revealed. I won't know until it actually works
consistently for an hour or so.
--
David Schilling
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: September 27th SMART meeting at Redmond Library
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| (...) So, any details around exactly what we will be doing and when? I've never been to Brick Con so have no idea how it works or where the SMART display would fit in. I looked at the schedule and it seems like people will be moving their stuff in (...) (16 years ago, 1-Oct-08, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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