Team Three/Final Paper

From Maslab 2011

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Revision as of 03:38, 30 January 2011

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Software Design

The brains of Monsieur Robot were developed using Java in 4 weeks. After coming to overall robot design and strategy conclusions, it was time to get started writing the software. In the end, an intelligence was developed that, although not quite self-aware, still managed to maneuver itself around the field.

From the beginning, we decided to make Monsieur a state-based machine. This seemed the easiest to program and most efficient method for collecting all of the balls. However, to gain an edge, we knew that transitions between the states had to be very strategic and often exit a state before its conclusion. Come final competition our robot had three distinct states:

• Exploring: Consists of two sub-states, StraightExplore and SpinExplore. In StraightExplore, the robot moves forward, attempting to keep its original angle, but avoiding walls. In this way, it will go straight, but also wall follow if it comes in contact with one. In SpinExplore, the robot turns 2*Math.PI, using its long-range IR sensors to find the direction with the furthest distance away. It combines this with knowledge of its original direction to make a choice of direction to proceed exploring. These exploring states alternate between each other until the robot finds something of interest. If at any point during these two states an object of interest is found, the state changes to its corresponding action.
• CollectBall:
• ScoreWall: