Project 3: More Musclewire
In this project we extended the last experiment from project 2. We wanted to make a robot which
would react to light stimulus. To this end, we created 2 similar legs as can be
seen in the following image.
To make the robot react, we used the Lego Mindstorms <insert link here>
control module which Bryce programmed for us. The blue blocks are light sensors which when
there is an imbalance between the amounts of light on both sides or the same
amount, but above a certain threshhold, the legs contract
and push the robot away. We tried to make the
robot move the sensors, but the control box is just too heavy, so we moved it
offboard. This is definitely a design flaw that can easily be corrected by using
a lighter controller. We also found that on the carpet, the robot had a tendency
to get its legs stuck, and on smooth surfaces, it liked to just slip, so we
added some tape feet to it and that fixed the problem with the smooth surfaces.
We also decided to add some wheels to the original design to aid in its
movement. I think that with the lightweight frame shown, we could have gotten
away without them, but it definitely made our lives a little easier.