Learning Plan (Work In Progress)

Goals: A. Navigation

1. Basic: straight, 90degree turns, maze
2. Faster: straight, gradual turns, maze
3. Accurate: motor and gyro sensors
4. Line Following:
   • straight, turns and maze using - color sensor
   • squaring on lines - using color sensor and gyro
5. Reliability & attachments
6. Other sensors (touch, ultrasonic, infrared)

Code

A. Navigation

LP01 - Basic

• MicroPython:
  • robot.straight(), robot.turn()
• Drive straight
• Turns: 90degree
• Navigate maze

LP02a - Faster

• MicroPython:
  • Fix DriveBase wheel_diameter and axle_track settings (Measuring and validating the robot dimensions)
    • class DriveBase(left_motor, right_motor, wheel_diameter, axle_track)
  • settings(straight_speed, straight_acceleration, turn_rate, turn_acceleration)
• Faster
  • Going straight - using robot.settings()
  • Turns - using arc (smooth/swing) turns (gradual) vs spin (point) turns (90deg)
    • Types of turn
      • spin - rotate on point between wheels (counter-rotating wheels)
      • pivot - one wheel stationary
      • smooth
        • both wheels turn, one turns faster.
        • rotates about a point outside itself
        • bigger difference in power makes for a sharrper turn
    • Radius Turns
  • Maze

LP02b - Faster Turns, Straight using acceleration and deceleration

• MicroPython:
  • while loop
  • robot.reset(), robot.distance() and robot.drive()
  • print statements to debug robot.distance()
• Faster2
  • robot.drive()
    • Turns: swing turns
  • Navigate maze

LP02c - Variable Speed Navigation

• MicroPython:
  • introduce functions
• Acceleration and decceleration
  • settings(straight_speed, straight_acceleration, turn_rate, turn_acceleration)
  • test: push stacks of legos to a circle
• robot.drive() without while loop - using ‘wait(milliseonds)’

LP03a - Accurate

• MicroPython:
  • robot.angle() - Accumulated angle since last reset
  • robot.reset() - Resets the estimated driven distance and angle to 0.
  • functions - replace duplicate code
• Turns
  • 90 degree (point turn - dual wheel counter-rotation; swing turn - outside wheel only turn)
• follow the perimiter of square

LP03b - Gyro

• MicroPython:
  • gyro.angle() - Rotation angle. (with lag)
  • gyro.reset_angle(angle) - Value to which the angle should be reset.
• Turns
  • 90 degree (swing turn; outside wheel only turn)
  • follow the perimiter of square Program Accurate 90 Degree Turns with the EV3 Gyro Sensor
• Straight line
  • Micropython
    • XI use odometry to figure how much your robot strayed from straight line
    • XII fix gyro drift when driving a straight line
  • EV3-G:
    • How to Make your Robot Drive Straight with the EV3 Gyro
    • EV3 Gyro Sensor + PID Algorithm = Extremely Accurate Drive Straight Program)
    • Gyro Following - More Accurately Control your FLL Robot
• Navigate maze/line maze

LP03c - Make Gyro More Accurate

• Calibration vs Reset
• lag vs drift
  • lag = gyro sensor readings lag behind the true value
  • drift = readings keep changing even when the robot is still (calibrate gyro to fix)

LP04a - Line Following

• MicroPython:
  • loops and more elaborate conditionals
• Color sensor
  • 2-level & 3-level line follower
    • Straight line
    • Turns
    • Navigate curvy loops
• Basic Line Follower
  • ev3lessons
• Challenge
  • stop after
    • a certain distance
    • touch sensor pressed
    • certain angle has been reached
• Resources
  • Line Following Tiles (pdf)

LP04b - EV3 Micropython Proportional Algorithm

• Color sensor
  • Proportional line follower
    • Straight line
    • Turns
    • Navigate line maze
• Proportional Line Follower
  • ev3lessons
    • Proportional
    • PID
    • Compare
  • Builderdude35
    • Proportional
  • Micropython
    • Pybricks Line Follower
    • PID Line Follower Code by Using MicroPython 2.0

LP04c - Squaring on lines

• Color sensor
  • Calibration
  • Squaring on lines (aligning on a line)

LP04d - combining line following and gyro

• LAGS Algorithm - Light Assisted Gyro Steering (Brickwolves Waring FLL)

LP05- Reliability and attachments

• Reliability
  • Robot Design
  • Motor Calibration
    • Hardware - how to see if there is an issue
      • drive straight for long distance; travel around a square many time in both directions
      • Calibrate wheels
    • Software
      • How to Make your FLL Robot Drive Straight - EV3 Motor Encoders
• Attachments
  • Worm gear
  • Dog gear
• How to organize your programs on the EV3 for competition
  • master/sequencer program?
  • Micropython program startup lag

LP06 - Robot Design

• Our World Record Robot (680 points!) - Brickwolves Waring FLL

LP07- Other Sensors

• basic sensors:
  • UltrasonicSensor
  • TouchSensor
• MicroPython: looping & conditionals (while and if statements)
• Touch and Ultrasonic sensor
  • Drive straight
  • Turns
  • Navigate maze
  • Combo navigation: Ultrasonic to follow wall; touch to initiate turn

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learningPlanResearch

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Log

4 Aug - watched kickoff; read mission rules; started mission M14_health_units

30 July - 3-level line following; intro to PID line following; did not work as expected - forgot to update DriveBase parms with new larger wheels

28 July - Finish second robot; Basic 2-level line following

23 July - Review micropython gyro code; continue build of 2d robot

21 July - Build 2nd robot; review Micropython Navigation

14 July - Faster Maze nagivator with smooth turns

10 July - Basic Movement

Measured and validated robot dimensions; Drove faster using Micropython’s settings() command combined with straight() and turn(); started curved turns with drive() command and introduced Python loops. Had problems with making while loop conditional on robot.distance() < n, where n was desired distance - did not run reset() command immediately before while loop conditional (otherwise measures distance from start of program).

2 July - Maze nagivator

Learned how to navigate robot out and back, and through simple maze, using Micropython’s straight() and turn() commands.