Worksheet: Full Speed Ahead

Introduction to Mobile Robotics > Full Speed Ahead

This worksheet is provided for reference only. Be sure that you follow the steps in the online directions, and answer the questions at the appropriate times. Fill out all your answers on a separate sheet of paper. Construct

Observations:

2 3 4

What happened when you ran the program? It did what it was programmed to do. Which motor spun? The left motor spun because it was plugged into port C which was the first instruction for programming the robot. What direction did the motor spin? It went forward but in circles because the second motor wasnt running. Did the motor stop spinning on its own? No, it stopped slowly. Is this the desired behaviour yet? Yes it is the desired behaviour for our robot so far.

Construct: Run Second Motor

6. Why is the second motor command needed? So it goes forward not in circles because the second wheel moves forward.

Construct: Stop the Robot

7. Why did the robot not stop at the right place before? Because it wasnt programmed to come to a halt at the 720 degree rotation.

8. Which of the following determines the order in which blocks are run in the program? Highlight one.

a. The order the blocks are placed on the workspace, regardless of where they are placed. The one you drop first runs first, etc. b. The order of blocks on the white Sequence beam. The program starts at the small NXT symbol, and follows the blocks in the order they are reached along the white beam.

c. There is an order of operations of blocks. The software will always make Motor command blocks run first, and then wait for blocks, then Motor stop blocks. 9. Write a brief one or two sentence explanation of what each block does in the program you wrote (also shown below).

First block: It made the first motor, plugged into port C, turn that wheel forward. Second block: It made the second motor, plugged into port B, turn that wheel forward. Third block: It made the motors stop turning at the 720 degree rotation mark. Fourth block: Stopped the wheel, attached to the motor plugged into port C, at 720 degree rotation. Fifth block: Stopped the wheel, attached to the motor plugged into port B, at 720 degree rotation.

10. Look at your program. I. Which icon or icons in the program controlled how far the robot went before stopping? The third, fourth and fifth block controlled how far the robot went before stopping.

II.

Explain how you could change the program to make the robot go a longer or shorter distance. In the third block change the settings to however many rotations of the wheels you would like.

11. Describe the robots new movement pattern if you moved the motor plug from Port B to Port A, but did not change the program. How would you then need to change the program to make the robot go forward again? There would be no programming for port A so that motor would not run. You would have to change the settings for second and fifth block to run in port A.

12. How far will the program shown below make the robot run? Look carefully, this is trickier than it seems! It would go four 360 degree rotations of the wheel.

Continue: Full Speed Reverse

Answer the following:

13. What program blocks are different between the moving forward and moving backward behaviours? The arrows on the blocks are facing the other way. Down is backwards and up is forwards.

Continue: There and Back (part 1)

Observations:

14. Did your robot perform both actions as expected? If not, what did it do instead? Yes, our robot did exactly what we programmed it to do.

Continue: There and Back (part 2)

Answer the following:

15. Why did the rotation sensor need to be reset? It needed to erase the memory of where the start point was so it wouldnt go twice as far back as it did forwards. 16. When do you need to do this in future programs? When you want to programme your robot to go forwards, backwards and stop.