Subject:
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Re: First Lego League Software (fwd)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Thu, 23 Dec 1999 22:16:49 GMT
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Original-From:
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Barbara Nostrand <NOSTRAND@BRADLEY.EDUnomorespam>
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Viewed:
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663 times
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Hi again.
> [ If they knew nothing about robots, hardware, software, or programing
> then I'd pick something a lot more supportive of absolute beginners. A
> more ideal system would be a small laptop with a umbilical or else a
> more powerful PCMCIA style computer so they could work in a very high
> level environment and not get bogged. Idealy the first thing a new
> robot builder should do is spend six months learning electronics and
> another six months learning mechanics. Then spend six months learning
> programming. I'd also 'payload' or 'modularize' the project. Things
> like motor, battery, or sensor assemblies would be pre-assembled. Only
> then would I turn them loose on anything more complicated than a
> bounce-and-twirl robot. At no point should they touch a soldering iron. ]
1) As I wrote, the LEGO system provideds a big advantage in having all
of the parts set up so that they can be plugged together relatively
painlessly. (This means no hacking the servos and no hacking IR
sensors both of which are required operations in assembling at least
one of the rug warrior kits.)
2) A lot of the other robotic kits have the decided disadvantage of
lack of flexibility in their design. Many of the rug rat robots
and their kin basically do not do anything more than one of the
early building projects in Mindstorms. Walker kits can walk, but
do not do anything else. Some of the robotic arm kits are not even
particularly good arms. (And some of the dedicated kits are a bit
fragile as well.)
3) As for my students, they are Senior C/S majors. Consequently, they
have had a couple of years of programming training at this point.
They are also supposed to know elementary digital circuits.
4) I am not silly enough to expect all of their projects to succeed.
I have seen projects fail in industry.
5) One of my objectives is to get them away from "a very high level
environment". One problem that a lot of CS students have is an
inability to wean themselves off of doing everything in Boreland C++
As for success of LEGO robots in Robotic competitions. LEGO
robots have successfully competed at the Trinity College Firefighting
Robot Competition where about 1/2 of the robots (regardless of
construction) fail to complete the course.
Barbara Nostrand
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: First Lego League Software (fwd)
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| ----- Forwarded message from Barbara Nostrand ----- Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 22:19:48 -0600 From: Barbara Nostrand <nostrand@bradley.edu> Subject: Re: First Lego League Software (fwd) If you are seriously considering using other processors, then this (...) (25 years ago, 23-Dec-99, to lugnet.robotics)
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