The NXT Experience: Take 2

Our Many Challenges

Some of the earliest challenges that we faced included both aspects of the creation of our robot...

Challenges With the Building Process...

• Finding the right parts in the mishmash of unorganized boxes
• Figuring out where said parts would fit
• Realizing that we got the wrong part entirely and having to search again
• The wheels were falling off and some of the body of the robot was unstable
• The balance wheel was very loose and wouldn't stay in one place

Challenges With the Programming

• The ultra sonic sensor was detecting objects that were very far away
• The sensor would occasionally detect it's own body instead of obsticales
• The touch sensor wasn't being utilized because the robot would stop early
• Getting the proper lengths of notes for the robot to play the Mario Theme
• Understanding the logic gates, and how they were selecting which options

Challenges cont...
Overall, we faced many challenges that we had to solve, but we found it an enjoyable experience to make our way through each and every one.

The Obstacles That We Had to Overcome

Throughout the course of the week, there were many obstacles that we overcame, such as...

Obstacles

• Tweaking the ultra sonic sensor's range, so the robot wouldn't stop short
• The robot looked boring, so we installed "slick spikes" to jazz it up
• The robot's body was very flimsy and weak, so we added connector pieces
• The side wheels constantly fell off, so we added washers to the axles
• To fix the balance wheel, a longer beam was made and a stopper was added

Obstacles Cont...
Overcoming all the obstacles was a difficult task which required a lot of thinking, but the end results were very rewarding (unless the end result led to more problems).

The Frustrations

With all of the problems and obstacles it is no wonder we got extremely frustrated. Some of the frustrations that we experienced were...

Frustrations

• The side wheels falling off when the robot turned was very annoying...
• only when we figured out that washers could be fit onto the axle...
• were we finally able to set the frustration behind us and move on
• While programming the robot, we got error messages...
• when downloading the program, saying that we had broken data wires...

Frustrations cont.

• The error message was extremely frustrating, because at first we thought...
• that it meant that a wire on the robot was disconnected, but we checked...
• all the wires multiple times, and we finally figured out that it meant...
• that there was an error in the program, not in the physical bot...
• we quickly distinguished the problem soon after and could move on

The Enjoyments

Not every thing we did was frustrating, there were many enjoying moments during the creation of our master piece, such as...

Enjoyments

• When the robot was set on the floor for the first time...
• it was very enjoyable to watch it make it's way around the room on its own
• When we fitted the robot with spikes, it looked really awesome
• Listening to the robot play the Mario Theme Song was very exciting 

Conclusion

Even with all the obstacles and challenges that we got frustrated with, our experience with Lego NXTs was extremely enjoyable and interesting experiment.

The End