Michelle Ungerer, Brian Olson, Andrea Okerholm, and our Mobot
Michelle Ungerer, Brian Olson, Andrea Okerholm, and our Mobot
The mobot has a 2Mhz 68HC11 with 32k RAM in it. It uses an assembly language program to read data from the 4 IR sensors and continually automatically calibrate them to figure out where the line is and where to steer towards. There is also a tilt sensor in it so that it can know to brake on the hills.
The day before competition we took it out to the course and ran it from start to finish without any problems. It braked perfectly on the hills and everything was good.
Race day was very cold, though that shouldn't have really made a difference. And it was just about as overcast as the day before. But the gremlins were out in force anyhow. On our first run the mobot lost the line mysteriously before it even got to the first gate. On the second run it lost controll on the hill and veered off into the grass. We then had a break during which it got lucky and found the line after going down the hill. Then on the third and final run it wobbled perilously down the hill crisscrossing the line and eventually finding the line but coming at it perpendicularly. Randomly, it started along the line again, but up the hill. It went back through the first gate and the lost the line and started circling coming within a few inches of the line, but never to see it again.