Sunday, July 5, 2009

Week 5 ACE Work

This week, I have been working with my co-worker Krista on the design and ideas for the Race Car and Board Game activities. For this, we are working on deciding whether or not it is feasible to use a "Segway-bot", a robot which moves like a Segway, for both racing and for the board game.

Design-wise, it would be much easier to utilize one design across both projects. However, there are some drawbacks to using the Segway-bot for the racing activity:
- Knocking into obstacles or other bots can result in serious damage or failure of the robot.
- Switching lanes can be difficult.
- Stability while switching lanes can be impared due to knocking into other vehicles.
- Very limited sensor space with upright design.

Likewise, it has many pluses:
+ Same design applicable to both projects then.
+ More compact design, allowing more robots to be used on the same course.
+ Allow for smaller race courses.

So far, she has been working on looking up solid design techniques we can use for building the Segway styled robot. I have been working with various code examples for how to make the robot work effectively.

Based on allot of the code I've seen, while it is feasible for a simple robot, allowing all of the racing facilities we have discussed could be difficult.

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About Me

Software engineer, game developer, writer, and student. My work revolves around games, algorithms, real-time development, and creative works.