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<\/a>This challenge is great for raising the importance of reliability and repeatability in robotics, and in engineering more generally.<\/p>\n
The challenge<\/h2>\n
Program your robot to run an obstacle course in the fastest time, reliably.<\/p>\n
Teacher notes<\/h2>\nFor the last couple of years, I’ve used this challenge to highlight the pros and cons of autonomous v remote control.<\/p>\n
Accordingly, I gave my students the choice of whether to make their robot run the course by itself (i.e. autonomous), controlled by a human (i.e. remote control), or some combination of the two.<\/p>\n
I gave them the following additional constraints to keep it interesting:<\/p>\n
\n- Autonomous – Dead reckoning is not an option for this challenge, you must use sensors to navigate through the course. If necessary, I will reposition the robot in the starting area.<\/li>\n
- Remote control – This is a DIY remote control challenge. Third party remote control is not an option \u2013 i.e. no phone apps.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The last time I ran this I made the course deliberately simple, but ensured there were some opportunities for using sensors if they chose to go with an autonomous approach. The robots were required to drive around a box (that could potentially be detected by an ultrasonic sensor) and back to the finish area.<\/p>\n
For the teams attempting the remote control approach, I provided some long 70cm and 90cm cables (available here<\/a>) so they could, for example, make a controller using touch sensors. Some teams researched EV3-to-EV3 Bluetooth messaging and made their own remote control using a second EV3 brick.<\/p>\n
The last time I ran this I made the course deliberately simple, but ensured there were some opportunities for using sensors if they chose to go with an autonomous approach. The robots were required to drive around a box (that could potentially be detected by an ultrasonic sensor) and back to the finish area.<\/p>\n
For the teams attempting the remote control approach, I provided some long 70cm and 90cm cables (available here<\/a>) so they could, for example, make a controller using touch sensors. Some teams researched EV3-to-EV3 Bluetooth messaging and made their own remote control using a second EV3 brick.<\/p>\n