23 Feb 2009
gmr
trinity-fire-fighting
robots
There's always gonna be some setbacks... such as the robot falls over when it comes to a stop.
Or that you mounted the IR sensors at a 45 degree angle rather than 60 degrees. And occasionally,
you find out your bot likes to climb the wall.. I really wish a video camera was running right
then.
Anyways, I'm quickly changing the lower frame to move the battery backwards 1/2", move the motors
up about 1", and put smaller wheels on. I'm also not entirely sold on this TPA-81 thermopile
nonsense... its really kinda slow compared to some good old IR photodiodes... or a pyroelectric.
18 Feb 2009
gmr
trinity-fire-fighting
robots
I've nearly finished the mechanical & electrical assembly of GMR. I have to redo the
front plate of the head as the mounting holes aren't quite correct for the TPA-81. I also
have to rig up the UVTron in the back.
So far the navigation software is pretty solid, since its a small revision of the code that
won the CNRG in the fall. The room entry code needs some work, as well as the fire fighting
itself -- mainly to address the move from a pyroelectric to a TPA-81. I also plan to rework
the cornering code, so that the robot makes a smooth turn through the corners, rather than
stopping and turning 90 degrees. This was where LGM lost the most time, his run at CNRG would
have been good for about a 64 second final score at Trinity. That time would have beat the 2009
senior division winner, but would have been about 3x slower than the winner of the HS division.
I'm hoping that with these improvements I can cut the final score to about 20 seconds...
09 Jan 2009
gmr
trinity-fire-fighting
robots
I've made quite a bit of progress on GMR. The motor mount plate is finished, the head is shaping up,
the controller board is finished. I've written all of the drivers for the new I2C devices, and I am
working on building the head board. I've still got to mount the caster, make the upper deck out of
EPVC, and mount all the sensors in their final positions.
