Student "edition" found at {csi dot journalspace dot com}.

Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

In the second meetings of my Introduction to Robotics classes for the eleventh week of the third term, the students had the last fix ups of their stair ascending and descending robot before the deadline of submission one day prior to the previously scheduled competition.

It was also only on this meeting that I saw any robots actually go up the stairs, unlike during the last one and a half weeks in the class.

There was only one group that used any type of sensor, this one a light sensor that triggers a “leg” to push down on the back part of the robot and boost it up the step.

The light sensor was placed by the group at an angle so that it would only detect the black strip in front of the step when the robot was already halfway up the step, because if the “leg” pushed down any time before that, it would not get the robot up the step successfully.

In addition to the tilted “forklift” in front that some of the groups used to help some of the robots get up the first two steps, they also put something similar in the back to help the robot descend the last three steps gracefully, as I had warned them when I heard they did not need any special design to let it roll down the second part of the stairs.

Another group worked an hour after the class was over, because they were complaining that the other groups had taken more than their share of parts from their kit, so they could not use any of the designs that they originally envisioned.

The three students who stayed behind ended up with a design similar to the other designs already submitted, but one of the major differences was that this one could not get up the steps if there were front wheels attached to the robot (besides the wheel in front to help it get up the step).

But surprisingly when the front wheel were removed, it was able to get up the step and at a very fast pace at that. Of course, gracefulness was thrown out the window, but they were already desperate at that point.

Session 1055 was also lacking some parts in their kit. Class dismissed.