Proposed Design Built and Coding Has Begun

The physical prototype discussed in the design proposal has been built based on the quick prototype created in Week 2. One aspect of the design that was added on was the double touch sensor with block wall, pictured in Figure 2, that allows the robot to detect contact from the back. Another aspect was the light sensor, pictured in Figure 3, that provides the ability to detect when the robot reaches the edge of the arena. In addition, the ultrasonic sensor mounting has been modified, shown if Figure 4, so that it is not looking down on an angle as it was originally.

Figure 2. Double touch sensor with block wall.
Touch sensors located behind red pieces.

Figure 3. Light sensor shown underneath robot and
during robot modification.

Figure 4. Front of robot with new
ultrasonic sensor mount.

As well as building the prototype, progress has been made in terms of coding. Using the knowledge gained from the NXC tutorial [2], practice blocks of code containing aspects that will be crucial to the algorithm have been written and executed to see how they affect the robot. 
Building off of these blocks of code, an alogrithm will be created during the next week that can be used in testing the current design of the robot.

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