LEGO ROBOTIC S
MY LEGO QUEST
I Chose to complete building a bridge. When trying to decide what I was going to build I was faced with a multitude of options, from animals to buildings however when I saw the bridge section I quit scrolling. I was curious- I had to check it out. I have always been afraid of bridges since I was a child, however when building this I felt that I was physically able to use my hands to create my own fear- a bridge. However my bridge was far from massive or spanning across an ocean it was small, and made of legos. Somehow I feel that that humored me and allowed me to face a fear of mine even if it was in a small way. The bridge was made of small red and black lego bricks that connect together to create a towering bridge- one that could provide shelter if needed. Before building my lego bridge I had considered making a birdhouse- however I did not complete this because the difficulty level seemed well beyond my lego mastery. I then examined the animal section where I was convinced I was going to make a dog- however for use in a robotics mission a dog just seemed small or inadequate so I made the best bridge I possibly could:
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It was a cold and stormy day, Bernese the battling bot was out patrolling the streets of Chicago with her special units team. They were on the south side of town when a report came in of urgent matter- Toxic waste has been dumped into lake Michigan and it is contaminating all of the marine habitats! Since the waste has washed to shore it can be removed! However it is so dangerous to move it is only appropriate for a robot to handle. But who is fit for the job? Bernese! The battling bot! Bernese is called in and programed on what her task is for the mission. She is to get the load of toxic waste, grab it, push it out of the way, and then take cover for herself until it is further defused. This is a critical mission in order to save the city of Chicago Bernese has been called in to do the job and make sure everyone can return home safe! Bernese's orders came down- she was to go towards the toxic waste- grab it with her mechanical arm- hold onto it tightly- turn and move it away SAFELY- then she shall release the waste from her arm, turn and quickly escape the dangerous situation herself by hiding safely behind a Newley created LEGO bridge! If anyone could do it Bernese could!
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Bridge
Bridge
Bridge
Toxic Waste
This is an overview of the program on the iPad that I used when designing the program for the mission Bernese completed in Chicago. The Program I used was the Lego Mindstorms app to program my robot.
The Programing App has 3 different colors that define the movements of the different motor functions- green, yellow, and purple. For this project we only used 2 of the blocks. These blocks were the green and yellow blocks which control the action and flow. When you change the variables of the blocks you change what the action is doing, for example how quickly it is moving, what direction it turns, or how long it is stopped. *Note for each numerical change the action preformed is different.
Begin with a Flow block. This is signaling the beginning of a program.
I programed The steering wheel action to tell the bot to move straight at a power of 10 until something makes it stop.
This is a stop flow box, here I stoped the robot when the sensor picks something up at 3 centimeters.
Now that something has been sensed the steering has stoped.
This is the low power motor controlling the arm- I adjusted the variables- Now the arm can come down to capture what stoped the robot (the toxic waste!)
Using the steering action block the robot can now move the waste she will steer in place, rotating the wheel at 50 and -50 one rotation each, while the arm is still down spinning the waste to the side.
Using the steering action block the bot can now drive foward, I had her going at a speed of 20, for 3 rotations, pushing the block.
Now to relase the toxic waste she needs to rase the arm. Using the low power motor action block I had a power of 10 with a rotation of .4 to lift the arm.
Using the steering action block I backed up the bot at a speed of -15 for 2 seconds
Using the stop flow block I can stop the bot from turning when the sensor detects it has turned 90 degrees.
Using the steering action block I can make the bot steer at a power of 15 away until it senses something.
Using the steering action block at a speed of 50 with 6 seconds I was able to move away after the turn, quickly!
Using the steering action block I was able to determine my speed of 15 going for 2 seconds to rotate the robot and turn towards the lego bridge!
Then using a stop flow block I was able to stop for 3 seconds.
Using the steering action block the bot ran to hide behind the lego bridge at a speed of 15 for 4 seconds, when she reached the safety of the bridge!!
Using the steering action block at a speed of 50 with 6 seconds I was able to move away after the turn, quickly!