Building and navigating the course

Building the course to the specified dimensions was very straightforward, I used duct tape, measuring tape, scissors and cardboard. The coding for the launcher runs off NXT programming software and was actually very intuitive to use, you can select the amount of rotations that you want the motor to perform and as well as the speed. However I ran into many difficulties while trying to get the robot to navigate the course. The stabilising period always resulted in the robot turned slightly to the right. Another annoying factor was that the robot would cover different distances based on the battery life. The navigation itself wasn’t very consistent. There were many simplistic built in functions into the default code that made the job a lot easier. I had to remove the stabiliser as it would always reverse at full speed when I switched it on. I taped a bowl to the head and wrapped it in cloth so that the balls wouldn’t bounce out. In my latest Instagram post you can see two videos. The second is the assignment using the DIY controls while the first is the robot running autonomously. Even though there were many frustrating elements with this assignment, overall I’m quite happy with the project and how it turned out.