Christchurch Robotics Challenge
2003
"Hope"

Here we are boys! Twoo thousand and freee!!! Actually, no. (though at time of writing I am free).
After our 'intro' course we could call ourselves Robotic masterS! Actually we couldn't though by now
we were more willing to work as a team, and after knowing what was in store for us, well we were
ready to take on the competiton in some months time.

5 or so months out:
Sign up dates were announced and we were putting our names down for it. I was a bit late, and the eight
odd spots available were all snapped up.
Marvin, Prateek, Soon Yan, Tic, Alex, Belinda and Natalie and some other new people - Chris and Tom. Both 4th form. So there they were - and here I was... No Adrian :(.
Though that didn't really matter, the equipment that was requested still hadn't come.

Some months out: Still no equipment, and the days of handball prevailed!!! Chess no longer existed! It was all Handball! During this time, I squeezed my way into a team by kicking one of the girls out... You couldn't say kicked. No.. more like she lost interest and I asked her if she was still in...

Anyway, after fed up of waiting for the bloody equipment, me and tic decided to draw a hUge banner
asking where our equipment was and taped it above the doorway to his office. 2 weeks later, the
people at electroflash.co.nz finally sent the stuff after stuffing around for the stupid stuff and stuff. yea

Lots of time left:
Not wanting the projecht to turn out like last years (a complete/moderate faliure) we were all motivated
not to stuff this year up. OKAY lets get started we told ourselves! Unfortunately, things sort of started
off like last year. Lost in Science Block. We something like, Tick is incharge of doing the physical aspects of the bot. Alex was the infrared dude, and I'd do most the programming...

Anyway, I picked up the manual and resources and read through them. It took one lunch hour. In this hour, I found out that. I cannot use Pins 2,6 or 10. As they control the motor. (oohhh so tahts how it works?!) Oh okya! Nevertheless, we were still stuck, asking Marvin was no good either. But not because he was too stuck up to help us. But cos he didn't understand our program :(. That tall robot mastermind who once knew it all was reduced to just that.

We have our equipment. We sorta understand the basics of the motors etc. Tick wired up the whiskers which I was soo happy about. All was good - so we started programming.
Again, I had a program, and I could not find out why it wasn't working. I had an idea why it didn't work, but I resolved to ask Marvin how to fix it, and get his advice 'n counsel. OMG!? He didn't know!
I remember it was a Friday because me and Tic had something after school whats more we had Physics last... We always have Physics last period on a Friday. Anyway it was up to me to fix it, I'm not sure where Tic was... and subconsciously anger at him built up for not 'helping'.

Some minutes later with the problem fixed I found out that I don't need Marvin's help anymore and that
I'd benefit a whole lot more if I did most the stuff myself. I told my team that I'd take it home and learn
about it - that was okay with them, so sweet.

At home, Friday night. What to do??? hmmm.... No not black lacy linger... *cough* ahh yea, Robotics.
After downloading all the resources from the website I had all the firepower I needed to UNDERSTAND!!

Matrix 2 was the hype at this time. I distinctly remember myself blasting
"MATRIX - 2 - Reloaded - Hunter - Wonders of You.mp3"
Really loud, on repeat. While soldering my way to victory! (fixing the motors, connections were loose)
The computer room was a complete mess! Wires, IC's, LEDs, cables, programming leads everything
was all over the floor. Anyway, by tea time, I had managed to get the robot to do the exact same thing
we had it doing last year.
When it bumps into stuff, it turns the appropriate way. If nothing then forward.

It was sound stupid, but getting to the same place as we were last year was a Milestone. Why? Well I understanded it. I understood EVERY SINGLE line of the program. What it did, why it did it. Too bad the robot was at my house I couldn't share the knowledge.

That night I got naughty... NO NOT BLACK LA.... umm well. I went too far. All in the sake of learning tho. Well I burn out a $8.50 Infra Red receiver. I KNOW I'M STUPID!! I tried to learn IR without reading the manual. I'm dumb I know it (not any more tho). How did I fry and kill it?

High 5 - This line here killed it. I didn't know what I was doing and I pumped 5V into it. A big no NO.

This IR bit was supposed to be for Alex anyway... with still 3 IR recivers and tranmitters left, Alex could still do his job. I'll not touch them I told myself.

Still lots of time left till comp: I told Tic and Alex that I learnt a hell of a lot of stuff by taking the thing home. I wanted them to experience and learn all that was to be learnt. So I told them to take it home. This week, Alex was hampered by Year13 Japanese assessments so Tick would be the one to take it home.

During this week we all played handball, with such a huge personal milestone I was happy to keep my mind off robots for once :). Care-free week for me.

Week after Tick took it home:
OK, I was sooo pissed @ Tic now... I couldn't believe he didn't do a thing with the robot over the weekend. I dunno why I was as pissed I was, maybe for the time lost? I dunno. Anyway I remembered that I kept bitching at him, telling him that if he wasn't gonna do a thing, why'd he take it home for? I could have taken it home and done lots with it.

**SIGH** progress was slow, and I was waiting for Alex to do the InfraRed. I told myself that I should leave some work for the rest instead of hogging it all. Learning about it was really fun! So the work didn't feel like an assignment but a ticket for fun!!

Alex was still hampered by assessment and I asked him when he thought he could do the IR. He said that I could do it, and that I'll have to explain it all to him later. Sounded good. Deal.

6 Weeks till comp:
With the infra-red figured out, we (more like I) now had more options on how to tackle the maze. The maze was the same as the previous year as that maze wasn't conquered. Our options?

Whiskers only
Whiskers + IR
IR only

Because I now had considerable knowledge on the Robot and most things to do with Robots. I could now have a decent conversation about Robots with Marvin. Batteries, navigation routines are just a few of the many things we'd talk about for hours over the phone. Talking with Marvin about this stuff was cool as we both understood each other.

5 Weeks:
After reading the manuals and all I found a way to 'Awesomise' our whisker only bot. It was the only chance to get past the end bit of the maze. This 'way' however needed a series of turns before it would kick in - the execution needed to be perfect. Tick was happy - and I felt that his input to the projecht after completing this bit fell away. Again subconsciously I was getting more pissed off with him. Personally, I did not think one way of getting out of the maze was good enough. I felt that 'backups' or better - more solid ways of getting out of the maze was required. That 'way' wasn't solid enough.

4 Weeks: After talking with Marvin, we discussed the preferred way of attacking the maze. I though that Whiskers only was no good. Marvin was getting at Whiskers and IR. And I asked about IR only. "No no, IR only is no good, it doesn't work, I tried it last year, it's doomed to be a failure." Marvin said. Taking Marvin's advice I proceeded in tandem with Marvin to design a code which would use both IR and whiskers. Since Alex had now finished his 'big' Japanese assessment, he was very eager to learn what progress we have made. So after school (I remember on a thursday) I taught Alex the basics of the robot. Bit, bytes, Words and nibs. High, Low. And also the fundamentals of Infra-Red.
3 Weeks: The IR was being a bitch. It didn't seem to work. It did, but my program was just crap. The 2-hour-after-school-club no longer existed, it was more like the 2.5 hour club now :(. What's more, it wasn't a club anymore, it had just one member. Me. I remember these days... no nights very well yea... I hated them. I had to bike home in pitch black with the street lighting and bike lights in my school uniform. It was before Day light savings, so it was dark by 4:30pm.

2 Weeks away:
At this point, getting the I was going home at about 5:30 everyday. Not good. What's more I found that I couldn't get to sleep as I kept thinking what can I do to fix the damn thing. And if it was fixed, I kept wondering how to improve the code. It sucked. My friendships were being strained and tested, I was really addicted to working on the robot now. All this hard work, and it's not gonna be wasted by stumbling on the last hurdle.

1 Week away / Competition week:
I decided the put robotics on hold for some time and let the rift between my and Tic disappear. Yea, we had a talk, and all is good :).

A school called Unlimited said that they had build the maze and that we could test our bots in them. Plagued by low-life 'heavy duty' batteries we found it hard to effectively test the robots. Thanks to Mr Moir for taking time out to help us with transportation :). Unlimited was also entering the competition. Most the students were about 13 to 14. 3rd to 4th form (year 9 - 10). I soo thought that they wouldn't be in contention for any prizes. They asked me how I did the IR. And I helped them, and wired it all up gave them tips etc.

Competition week:

The Bots are all done. Tweaked to perfection. I was happy with my Whisker + IR bot. I suppose Marvin was with his too. At the venue, we could test out our bots there. Ours went thru successfully. Now lets hope that the batteries will hold out and let us win! I was really tense!! Long story short. Ours got thru 20 seconds over time  :( - We won a printer! Marvin's one didnt get past some corner. Unlimited school won - USING only IR.

From left: Prateek, Adrian (me), Marvin, Alex, Tic, Natalie, Soon Yan

Conclusion:
Darn it Marvin, I should never have listened to you1!%$&!!! gggggrrrrr.
"No no, IR only is no good, it doesn't work, I tried it last year, it's doomed to be a failure."
I suspect that in 2002, Marvin did the IR so poorly that the idea didn't work for him. But in actualy fact, the idea was perfect. His execution? Crap.
 

Links: Robotics 2003 Pictures

Note the copper heatsink!

And that concludes the projecht of:
Christchurch Robotics Challenge
2003
"Hope"