SimLearn

In meeting with Chandima, he saw that a discrete pattern existed in the amount of degrees the robot must turn to coincide with the amount of degrees the user typed into the textbox. As such, he provided me with a method to determine the decimal number the degrees the user types in should be multiplied by. In figuring out this constant, I was able to completely eliminate the if/then statement I had written. Overall, this little suggestion made the code much cleaner, easier to follow, and more efficient.

At our meaning on Friday, we were able to remotely control the grabber device using Bluetooth.  This is a major, major breakthrough.  Interestingly enough, we were controlling the robot using a program made in Visual Basic.   Hopefully we are able to reestablish the Bluetooth connection in the next couple days.  I am cautiously optimistic.  At least we know it is possible to remotely control the robot from the computer.

My meeting with Professor Cumaranatunge started with me showing him the grabber program I had created. My first attempt did not work, as I had position the robot crooked on the diagram. Once I straightened the robot, it worked perfectly the next three times I executed the program. Professor Cumaranatunge was real impressed with what I had done. We plan on taping the robot in action and maybe even putting it on the school website.

Next we tried to tackle the Bluetooth problem. We were able to make a wireless connection between a Mac computer and the NXT brick. On the other hand, we were not able to find the solution to the problem that I had in connecting my PC to the robot. However, we have not given up hope that we may in fact be able to get the Bluetooth connection to work.

Finally, we began searching for information about how to remotely control the robot using Bluetooth. We were able to find some information about people who have used C# and Pearl to communicate with the NXT brick using Bluetooth. Some of the material seemed very promising. Professor Cumaranatunge and I decided that we would both try and find as many websites as we could relating to how use Bluetooth to communicate with the NXT brick so as to allow us to remotely control a robot.

The following is a list of a few of the websites we have found so far:

http://nxt.ivorycity.com/

http://lego.fokke.net/

http://www.codeproject.com/useritems/nxtBluetooth.asp

http://www.impossibilities.com/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=236

http://mindstormsnxt.blogspot.com/2006/08/nxt-bluetooth-and-control.html

Although the future is filled with uncertainty, both Professor Cumaranatunge and I feel certain that we will be able to find a solution.

Today I presented my car to Professor Cumaranatunge and shared a few ideas with him. My first idea for the independent study was to create a game using the ball retrieving device. This would include three major steps: 1. design an interface for controlling the robot, 2. discover how to use Bluetooth to send commands to the robot, and 3. attach a camera to the car, so as to allow the user to watch the moves the ball retrieval device was making. Overall, the goal of the game would be to use the ball retrieval device to locate a ball hidden in a room and, once found, grab the ball and navigate to another location in the room.

The second idea I presented to Professor Cumaranatunge was to build a device that could draw letters. In carrying out this idea, I would need to make 26 programs (one for each letter of the alphabet). Once the 26 programs were designed, I would need to make an interface that allows a user to select the letters in their name. Finally, I would have to design a way to send the program, once a letter was chosen, to the robot using Bluetooth.

Although we did not choose which direction we were going to follow, we came up with a plan of action for the immediate future. Professor Cumaranatunge decided it would be best for me to become familiar with the programming software that came with the Lego Mindstorms. Not only would this activity allow me to learn about different sensors, it would allow me to delve deep within the small intricacies of each of the sensors.

Today was the first meeting between Professor Cumaranatunge and me. During this meeting we did the preliminary work for the Independent Study, as I had my add/drop formed signed and was given the Lego Mindstorm kit.