For the first two weeks of class we were doing robotics with Lego Mindstorm. My partner was Brendan and together me and him learned how to do some functions with the robot and we took some measurements in a lab. On the first day of using the robots we just followed the directions given to construct the robot. At first my partner and I had trouble finding all the parts and pieces but we got it al together. After having the robot put together we did some basic functions with it in making it move forward and back. On the second day we took some measurement such as rotations, turns, and distance and my partner and I got the following results:

Trial 1

Distance (human measurement): .288 m

Distance (computer measured): 0.262409 m

Number of Wheel Turns: 1.54722

Velocity: 0.262409

Rotation: 557

Rotation 2: 565

Percent Error= |0.288-0.262|/0.262 x 100 = 9.92%

Trial 2

Distance (human measurement): .285 m

Distance (computer measurement): 0.26288 m

Number of Wheel Turns: 1.55

Velocity: 0.26288

Rotation: 558

Rotation 2: 566

Percent Error= |0.285-0.262|/0.262 x 100 = 8.77%

Trial 3

Distance (human measurement): .284 m

Distance (computer measurement): 0.2487 m

Number of Wheel Turns: 1.46667

Velocity: 0.248747

Rotation: 528

Rotation 2: 536

Percent Error= |0.284-0.248|/0.248 x 100 = 14.51%

(Observations taken by Brendan)

 

(Block Diagram programming of robot)

 

During Class last Thursday we took a trip to the library, where I learned a ton of things on researching. I learned how to get to the catalogs in the library and searching techniques. I learned that through Suffolk  a bunch of online data sources are available like, GreenFILE, Ebsco, Gale Science in Context, Science Direct, LexiaNexic Academic, and many more. I also learned searching techniques such as using using ‘AND’ to use instead of ‘and’ and ‘+’. The librarian also taught me how to use ‘*’ to represent the beginning of a word For example if I type in ‘sub*’ then it will give me results of search that contain words that start with ‘sub’. I also learned how to use the library catalog to find books in the library and how to locate the by their call number.

Overall I believe the trip to the library was very useful and informative. What I learned will help me in the future to do projects and write papers. It is always good to know your available resources and how to efficiently use them.