This week in class we continued on with our robotics team exercise. After setting up all the configurations with Windows, we measured the circumference of the wheel and computed it in the front panel of our own car. From here we were then able to calculate the time taken for each wheel rotation. It took approximately  half a second (.55 milliseconds) per rotations over four rotations because we had the speed at a moderate level. Milliseconds and seconds are related to each other as: 1000 ms per 1 s. Each full wheel turn is a representation of the wheel’s circumference, and this equates to the distance traveled as the sum of the full rotations multiplied by the circumference. We also made note of percentage difference, calculated as ((actual-labview)/(average actual, labview))100.

 

Trial 1: 75 (power)
0.26 – 0.258 / 0.267= 0.038, or 3.38%

Trial 2: 75 (power)
0.26 – 0.263 / 0.267= 0.015, or 1.5%

Individual Attempt 1: 90 (power)

0.38 – 0.34 / 0.34= 0.088, or 8.8%

 

After this general set up, we began by programming our to drive in a 2 foot radius both forwards and backwards. We noticed that in comparison to the VI, our car travelled .43 meters farther than the VI; we attributed this to a slightly higher power level than the VI. By the end, we experimented with power levels of 75, 100, 125, and then 50 in order to alter the revolution speed. It definitely needed some music as well, so we incorporated some tunes already programmed into our car.

Furthermore, we altered the power levels between ports by as much as a discrepancy of 20 units (1 on the left, 1.20 on the right wheel), which resulted in a circular rotation. This was due to higher power in one wheel forcing the car to spin unevenly and therefore cause a controlled tailspin. We altered the speeds between wheels to experiment with a more “funky trajectory.” We also attempted the While and For loops, but needed some assistance from colleagues in order to perfect it- which we did by the end of class Wednesday. We did wish, however, that we tried out more of these different programming techniques like the altered wheel programming. More creative techniques will definitely be a bigger option in future experiments.

Overall, it was a good experience working within the Robotics Activity. We were able to examine the correlation between wheel rotation, circumference, and distance travelled for both our robot and the VI. We alternated amongst different wheel movements and speeds as well and still have more to do next time, most importantly being bigger changes of speed and examining more pertinently the scale of difference on distance accumulated.