If I told my grandmother that the device pictured on the right would be able to calculate things such as distance traveled,

revolutions of the tire and many other complicated calculations, she would laugh at me. Further more, if I told her that this simple looking toy was controlled simply but the push of a button, and an arrangement of various functions, she might pass out. But its a reality! It may  not have been years ago, but it is today. As cool as these robots can be, are they completely accurate? We wanted to know the direct answer to that question, so we did a little experiment. We ran the robot at multiple different power levels, and reviewed the data provided by the robot. We also compared it to the data which we manually collected (a method my grandmother would much prefer) and calculated the percent error of the bot. In each trial level we altered the power level which directly controls the speed of the motor, and thus the speed of the bot. In the first trial, we ran the bot at a power level of 75. We ran each trial for a standard 2 seconds. In the first experiment the bot calculated the distance traveled as 0.51 m. Using the circumference of the tires which remained the same throughout all trials, and some good old fashioned ruler measurements, we determined the distance traveled to be 0.59m. This meant that the percent error for the bot at the power level 75 was 14.5%. In the second trial, we slowed down the bot by bringing the power level down to a mere 55. At this level, and for the standard 2 seconds, the bot calculated that it traveled 0.36 m. We used my grandmother’s preferred method and calculate the distance traveled as 0.45m. This meant that the percent error was 22%. Finally in the third trial, we increased the power level to 95, thus increasing the speed. When the bot traveled at this level for the standard 2 seconds, it calculated that it traveled 0.66m. We on the other calculated that it traveled 0.76 meters which left the percent error for this trail at 14%. If you look at all three trials, you find a trend. When the speed of the bot is increased, the percent error goes down, while the percent error increases if you decrease the speed. This means they have an inverse relationship. Although I am not nearly certain of why this is, I would assume that at a slower rate, the bots technical devices may be slowed down as well. Another fact may be that at a slower rate, the bot may relax, or take a break. In order to make the bot move, we used an engineering program called Lab View. This program allowed us to control the power of the engine, the amount of time it moved for, and many other factors. It also did all the calculations for the bot. I think this experiment shows us that although technology can be cool, there are also some flaws inherit with any technology that could affect research data.