1. Engineering H193 - Team Project Gateway Engineering Education Coalition P. 1 Spring Quarter Observations from the Individual Competition Week 8 Day 3

2. Engineering H193 - Team Project Gateway Engineering Education Coalition P. 2 Spring Quarter Results The high score was 54 – six robots had this score The average score was ~ 30

3. Engineering H193 - Team Project Gateway Engineering Education Coalition P. 3 Spring Quarter Starting with the LEDs Locate your CdS cell so that you can easily place your robot’s cell over the start light or drill a hole in the chassis so that you can see the CdS cell in its current location. Write your starting code so that your robot will start reliably. The light levels will be different in French Field House. Do a light check as soon as the course opens next Thursday. If you bend over your robot when positioning it, make sure that your code does not think that the start light has gone on when you stand up.

4. Engineering H193 - Team Project Gateway Engineering Education Coalition P. 4 Spring Quarter Reading the IR Problems If your robot does not detect the IR beacon in 10 seconds after it has turned the beacon on, the IR beacon will be off and your robot should do a task that you know that it can do well.

5. Engineering H193 - Team Project Gateway Engineering Education Coalition P. 5 Spring Quarter Location and Use of Bump Sensors Does your robot know when it has a bottle? A number of robots stopped and could not continue because the robot needed two closed switches to continue its task. In some cases, the robot touched one and turned and touched the other and kept oscillating from one to the other but never hit both. Others hit one switch and then another part of the robot and stalled. Think about code that would stop after a certain number of cycles or a certain time.

6. Engineering H193 - Team Project Gateway Engineering Education Coalition P. 6 Spring Quarter Location of Bump Sensors Do your robot’s bump switches need to be located closer to the corners to work effectively? What have you done to protect your bump switches so that they work reliably? (don’t get torn off by the course or other robots) Do you have spare(s)?

7. Engineering H193 - Team Project Gateway Engineering Education Coalition P. 7 Spring Quarter Maneuvering Some robots were getting caught by protrusions on the course while others (many times with treads) were driving up walls. Have your team members thought about some form of bumpers that would allow the robot to ‘slide’ by obstacles and not allow the robot to climb the walls?

8. Engineering H193 - Team Project Gateway Engineering Education Coalition P. 8 Spring Quarter With Task 5 being part of every run, have you thought about your strategy if you run into another robot(s)? Which neighbor’s bottle do you plan to pick up and why? Study the way the other robots are built. Could they be ‘bumped into’ from any angle and one of your robot’s ‘bump’ switches be turned on/off? This would allow your robot to take evasive action. Robot to Robot Interaction

9. Engineering H193 - Team Project Gateway Engineering Education Coalition P. 9 Spring Quarter Friction High Internal Friction can drain battery power rapidly. What have you done to reduce friction? Do you have the best combination of wheels or treads for this course? Do you have enough friction (but not too much) between the robot and course to move reliably?

10. Engineering H193 - Team Project Gateway Engineering Education Coalition P. 10 Spring Quarter Identification Have you created your ‘flag’ with your team number and do you have it mounted properly so that it can be easily seen by the judges? Have you made sure that any signage that you have on the robot is appropriate for a public competition? There will be children of all ages at the competition. Have you turned in a team or robot name to be used in setting up the brackets for the competition? Turn those in to your TA.