Project ACE and Alice VI

So, for the summer, I am working on Project ACE and Alice VI for the software engineering department at RIT. I am working on restructuring activities for ACE and performing code fixes and implementations for Alice. So far, everything seems to be going well. I am working with another game design graduate student and a software engineering undergraduate. Both are fun and nice to work with, which is a plus.

Otherwise, work is progressing casually. We made two important bug fixes today with our current version of Alice. We now just need to write the test classes to verify that the bug fixes do not occur again (also so others can test them out). Aside, we've been working hard on the documentation rewrite for the first activity thus far. When we're done with that activity, we will progress by writing a set of common libraries for the controls of the robots. Lastly, we will go through and have them read and checked, followed by a revision of the work to see what we get done.

Project ACE Week 10

So, this week was the wrap up of the project for most of us. I worked with touching up the documents one last time for the Racing Activity, followed by a formal review of the documents and code, in front of peers and managers. Overall, it was received very positively, and Krista and I gained very good feedback.

Aside, worked with Krista on getting some more ideas down for the Board Game activity. Also worked with her on describing where I was with the balancing, gyroscope using robot and the different approaches I've tried. I documented all changes and current thoughts, so that way the next person to follow in my footsteps will have an idea of where it was heading.

So, for the rest of the week we are packing up. Overall, it has been a very fun experience, one I greatly appreciate. I've met some great people: Reza, Faradjine, Krista, and Erika. It'd be a pleasure to work with them again someday on another project.

Project ACE Week 9

This week, I worked on cleaning up documentation and code for the Race Car activity. Krista was gone this week, which meant it was a little slower than normal. Also, with the quarter winding down, it is kinda expected. I'm planning on working with Krista next week on verifying whatever needs done and trying to get her ideas for the Board Game activity down for those that come in behind us.

In short, a light week for the project.

Project ACE Week 8

This week, Krista and I worked on finishing up the smart lane switching functionality for the Racing activity. While I worked on that, she worked on the write-up for the activity. Afterward, we worked together on the cheat sheet for commands and functions for the activity. Lastly, we're working on getting the rest of the activity flushed out for review by our peers over the next week or so.

Project ACE Week 7

Well, this week was pretty slow in terms of work pace.

For pretty much the whole week, I worked with Krista on the Racing Activity. She worked primarily on the model of the racing robot and the write up. I worked on tuning the line following code and starting to allow the robot race cars to switch lanes, which turns out to be very difficult.

Aside, everything has gone relatively smoothly. I want to try to get Krista more involved with some of the programming and coding, but she seems hesitant, mainly because she has around 0 programming experience. Perhaps it would really be better not to, and to just focus on our strengths. I'm hoping that, within next week's time, we can have the programming done and then just focus on activity planning and design.

Project ACE Week 6

Last week I worked with Krista on the Racing Robot activity. We worked on building a better model for racing and then worked on finding some algorithms to work with.

I found a paper on several line following algorithms for the Minstorms robot. Krista worked on developing the model more thoroughly after we discussed what the robot should be doing. In short, the division worked well.

So, aside, we made a lot of progress. For this week, we're going to work on the activities and algorithms for them, trying to implement and test the feasibility of the different algorithms for the students to implement.

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.

Project ACE Work Log - June 11, 2009

Today I worked with Faradjine on testing all of the untested sensors for the infrared and ultrasonic sensors. I found two more deffective sensors during our test beforewe moved on to the ultrasonic sensor. The infrared test took about 0.75 hours to complete.

For testing the ultrasonic sensor, we had some issues because the sensor readings heavily depended on objects nearby (such as walls, types of walls, whether on a tabletop or not, etc). Hence, we decided based on this to solely do testing on the floor while noting the effects of some testing on tabletops, near walls, etc. This required a little bit of extra effort, but all of the testing was done on our subset for now, finding some good values to gain basic sensor effect knowledge from. We still need to complete the ultrasonic sensor sweep and verify whether they all work around the same median or not. This took the rest of the day, requiring around 3.25 hours to complete while I was here, followed by the extra time Faradjine used to finish testing the rest of the objects.

Aside, I proofread some changes to the writeups that Faradjine did and made a few extra minor comments and format changes. This took all of 0.5 hours (probably a little less to be honest).

For tomorrow, seeing as I will only be there a short period of time, I plan on looking over the sensor data collected, verifying any document changes that have been done, and then working on designing the layout for the compass sensor test with Faradjine, in all of 2 hours, hopefully.

Project ACE Work Log - June 8, 2009

Today I worked on doing formalized write-ups for the sensors, with my focus on doing the Light Sensor.

To do this task, I first devised a document template for Sensor write-ups, which took around .75 hours to complete based on the different data required. I found this necessary and useful, as it would help to formalize the structure of such write-ups for the future. It can be updated as necessary to fit with the requirements of writing up about the caveats, qualitative and quantitative data acquired during tests, and other nuances including best practices and ideas for using the sensor. Aside, I also created the basic directory structure for the sensor write-ups, committing these and the current versions of documents to the repository.

Afterward, I began working on the Light Sensor write-up document. I worked on this for the remainder of the day (not counting the morning meeting, the other 4.25 hours of my work day). I worked specifically on writing up the testing results and placing the data, exported from a Google doc, into an Excel spreadsheet. I also worked on finding and referencing the resources we used for determining support for the sensor and finding the different expected ranges and values available.

Lastly, during my period of working on the document, I worked with Faradjine on the model for the testing harness we used for testing the sensors using LEGO Digital Designer.

We will probably follow a similar process for the rest of the sensor information.

As for my plans tomorrow, I plan on finishing the Light Sensor write-up and working with Faradjine to look over and proofread it before submitting it for review. Providing I finish this before the end of work (more than likely), we will split up who will work on the next document, while the other will more than likely work on inventory and tracking the defected vs. correctly working sensors, placing these into a separate inventory spreadsheet.

Project ACE Work Log - June 10, 2009

Today I worked on inventorying sensors, proofreading the Light Sensor and Color Sensor writeups, and working on the IR Sensor Writeup.

For approximately 0.5 hours, I worked on taking inventory of the sensors, counting the sensors and noting which ones had defects, which ones had not been tested yet, and inventorying the materials used with the sensors specifically or similar devices (the PS2 controllers, the IR Balls, etc).

For around 0.5 to 1.0 hours, I worked on proofreading the Light Sensor and Color Sensor writeups, expanding them with some ideas, and making any changes necessary in the measurements spreadsheets, such as any charts or other required tables or images that were needed.

For approximately 2.5 hours, I worked on the IR Sensor writeup. This included bouncing ideas around with Faradjine and creating tables and images for the qualitative and quantitative values to be displayed in the report. The writeup needs to be extended with some ideas for sensor use and Faradjine plans on proofreading it, making it almost ready for further review.

For around 1.0 hours otherwise, I talked and collaborated with Faradjine on the other writeups, the model for the other test harness we used for the sensors, and we talked a little on the splitting up of the work. We agreed on the next steps for the ultrasonic sensor and planned on testing at least two to three more of the ultrasonic sensors to verify the results we received with the first, followed by doing an inventory sweep to make sure they were all functioning.

As such, tomorrow I plan to work with Faradjine on gathering the required test data needed for flushing out the information we have on the ultrasonic sensor. We will then start working on the test cases for the compass sensor, while working aside to clarify issues found with some of the code examples and functions found for working with some of the previous sensors. Following, we will probably divide up the work between the ultrasonic sensor writeup, the defect testing for the ultrasonic and infrared sensors that have not been tested, and the clarifying and correcting of code examples in the previous writeups.