Subject:
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Re: turtle coding kit (Re: How would we (the rest of us) communicate ideas to the MDP?)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Thu, 23 Feb 2006 02:02:53 GMT
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Viewed:
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2401 times
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In lugnet.robotics, Ed Manlove wrote:
> In lugnet.robotics, David Koudys wrote:
> > When I was a mentor for a local FLL team, I was so hard pressed to convince the
> > kids that 'dead reconing' wasn't the way to go.
> >
> > THey had the entire program coded like 'go straight for 10 seconds, then turn
> > left for 2', thinking that this would get them trhu the maze.
> >
> > THe problem was, as I kept trying to show them, is that if you start your 'bot
> > even at the slightest different position or angle, your 'bot will be so far out
> > of position by the time it should have reached the finish line in the maze.
> >
> > But they persisted in the timing solution. didn't do so well...
> >
> > Eh, it was a valiant effort.
> >
> > Dave K
>
> This sounds like a good demo that someone within the MDP program can create
> (hint, hint, wink wink, nudge, nudge).
>
> Show the difference between navigating through a maze using (1) the 'dead
> reconing' method, (2) the ultrasound sensor and the ????? method, (3) the bump
> into wall and turn left method, (4) ??? (and some other methods)... and
> describes the advantages and disadvantages of each method.
I am entirely ignorant of helping kids, and have no idea if this is practical or
reasonable (it probably isn't), but I'll mention my odd demo thought anyway...
An exercise in understanding robots could be to pick a corridor with a corner in
it, or better, create an imaginary corridor with two corners by laying down
masking-tape on the floor to indicate walls. Get the kids to pace it out and
write their program as if to instruct a robot-person how to get around the
course (eg "5 steps ahead, turn right, 3 steps ahead, turn 45 degrees left"),
then blindfold a volunteer "robot" (or each person in turn), spin them around,
face them in the right direction, and have them try to follow the instructions
to get around the corner. (An advantage of masking-tape - nothing to bang into,
you can verbally tell the robot when they've hit a wall and whether it hit their
left or right sensor).
If I was the robot, (especially if there were real walls) I would be about three
steps into it before I'd be thinking "oh no! oh no! oh no! I'm going to hit
something! I have no idea what I'm doing! I'm going to hit something!".
I don't think many could keep their bearings for even the first corner,
learning firsthand how little information a robot would be working from might be
useful. OTOH, people might just conclude "well I can't do it, but a robot
could". I wouldn't really know :-)
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