FINAL BLOG ENTRY

How could this class be changed to be better?

I'll start off by saying I enjoyed this class thoroughly. Both the format and the content were things I have not experienced in a course before but I think that in this instance it worked really well for me. I learned things I had never dealt with before and I was really impressed with the new skills I developed. I think that the things I learned are going to be very useful for me throughout my education and career, so this class was a great introduction to those types of skills.

I think that the class worked very well for this being the first time. I liked the format of independence to go at our own pace and work things out ourselves as a opposed to a more structured class. It definitely helped me to troubleshoot problems on my own as opposed to being told exactly how to do things.

With all this said, I can't say that there is much I would change about this course. Obviously making the AUV was an experiment because we had never done it before. I think next year there will be a better idea of what works for the AUV construction so future classes won't have to do as much trouble shooting. I also think that a bit more time should be devoted to the AUV project. It seemed that all of the groups finished the AUVs right at the deadline and didn't have any extra time to experiment with what we could make them do underwater besides the bare minimum. It would have been fun to have some more time to experiment with that. Other than that I really enjoyed class and there weren't really any aspects of it that I didn't like.

What other skills/knowledge could be taught?

I don't know how realistic this is but it could also be cool to learn how to engineer a remote control to a robot. For example instead of the AUV being programmed ahead of time we could have it wired to a remote so that we could control it from the surface. I have no idea what type of knowledge and skills this would involve or if it would be realistic for a class like this, but I think it would be something that could be cool to try.

Week 13 Thoughts

What I learned:

Use others as a resource. Stacy and I started our AUV this week a little behind everyone else, but the good thing about that is that we got to see what works and what doesn't it terms of constructing the AUV. Some of the other groups ran in to some problems with things and we were able to avoid these mistakes by talking with them and Jim to figure out an alternative solution. This has definitely helped us catch up to everyone else.

What got me excited:

Building the AUV. Stacy and I are flying through it. We have everything set up, basically the only thing left to do is finish wiring two of the motors then mount them and test it all out. I'm sure after testing we are going to run into problems but so far so good! I was very worried that we wouldn't have enough time to complete the project but I now think that we are going to be able to get everything working in time. I'm definitely pretty proud of what we have done so far.

Suggestions:

Like I mentioned above it has really helped us to communicate with other groups to figure out what works and what doesn't. I think in the future it is important to encourage all of the groups to help each other out with this. Kevin's group and Sam's group have kind of been competing throughout this project and both of them have run into problems. Stacy and I are open to working with anyone and so far it is working well for us. Just something I have noticed.

Week 12 Thoughts

What I learned:

Stick to the basics to start. When I programmed my robot for the line runner challenge I was building the program for the standard slow moving crawler bot that we used for all of the learning exercises. As soon as I finished the program and the bot was doing the line runner challenge successfully I got all excited to start building a fast robot to try to get a good time for the challenge. Emmanuel suggested I complete the challenge with the slow robot first while I knew everything was working just in case I ran into any problems trying it with the fast robot. It is a good thing he told me to do that because after trying to build a fast robot to do it I had to spend a great deal of time fixing the timing of the program because the fast robot reacted differently with the lines. It was a good reminder to not get ahead of myself and take things one at a time.

What got me excited:

For all of this class so far I have enjoyed working by myself on the projects. Most of the things we have done in class I have never done before so it is especially rewarding when I complete them all on my own. That being said, I am very excited to work on the underwater submersible with Stacy. I was a little wary about having a go and the underwater ROV but now that I know Stacy and I are going to work together on it I think we will be able to do it. Should be fun.

Suggestions:

Can't think of much but I'm sure things will come up once we start work on the ROV.

Week 11 thoughts (sorry I was out of town)

Missed class on Thursday because I was out of town for an internship so not much has changed since last weeks post. Sorry for the late blog, didn't have internet till I got back from Florida on Sunday.

What I learned:

Have to make sure I manage my time well. End of the semester is sneaking up fast and I'm barely done with one project so I have to make sure I'm staying focused and chugging through from here on out. The robotics is going good, it just takes a while so I'm going to start coming in extra to get some more work done outside of class.

What got me excited:

Basically finishing up the first project. Hopefully I can compete for fastest time for the line runner challenge, I've got everything working how I want finally so we'll see how it goes.

Suggestions:

Can't really think of anything else that could change right now.

Week 10 thoughts

What I learned:

Not to get ahead of myself. As I began working on the first project (basketball drill) I began trying to write the entire program all at once and then test it out. Obviously that was stupid. After doing something like that anytime something went wrong in a test it would be difficult to figure out where exactly the problem was. I learned to slow down and take things step by step, building each piece of the program at once then testing to make sure it worked. Only after I had made sure everything was working fine did I move on to continue developing the program.

What got me excited:

Starting the first project. Finally got going on it and it really pumped me up to start doing everything completely on my own as opposed to basing programs off of what was in the tutorials. I also am getting ready to build a robot to go with the first challenge, so I'm excited to try to make one that can maximize its speed and hopefully do well in the basketball drill challenge.

Suggestions for future:

Can't think of much at the moment but one of the things that I really like about the projects we are doing is that there is a bit of a competition with everyone else to see whos robot is most efficient. I like seeing the fastest times and stuff up on the board because it motivates me to try to develop my program to work as best as possible. Definitely something that should be kept as part of the projects for the future.

Week 9 thoughts (oops a little late)

What I learned:

Building and programming the robots is easier than I thought. The intros we went through definitely helped a lot to get me going on how to use the program and integrate it with the robot. Since doing those, I've gotten a good idea of how to do things and now it is just a matter of chugging along to make some robots that do the certain project assignments.

What got me excited:

Getting to the point where I can start working on some of the project assignments. Its cool to be faced with a problem and develop a solution myself, as opposed to getting walked through it by the book or computer program. I pumped to get going.

Suggestions:

It is not an issue right now, but I'm anticipating that doing the work with the robots is going to be pretty time consuming. When compared to the programming with scratch and building the sensors I think that working with the robots is the most difficult topic we cover in this class, so it might make sense to give a little more time for the robot work in the future. However, the class already does devote more time to the robot unit so maybe its not a problem at all. Just something I thought about that could come up as we progress with our work with the robots.

Week 8 thoughts

What I learned:

Well spring break was nice but back to it. I learned to go at my own pace to accomplish things. I think I was the second to last one to finish sensor project 2, and watching everyone get going on the robotics stuff really had me anxious to try to rush to get my sensor finished. I did my best to make sure I was doing everything right and not rush through things. Eventually it paid off, my sensor worked well and I was able to start experimenting with the robots.

What got me excited:

Starting with the robots. So far I really enjoy it. The combination of building something and then programming it to do things is really cool to me. As of now I haven't had any trouble yet with the robotics so I'm pumped to keep progressing.

Suggestions:

I just started with the robots so I can't really think of anything that I think should be changed thus far. One thing I really like though is the freedom we have with building and programming the robots. The assignments allow us to choose for ourself the type of robot we want to construct and what we want to program it to do. I think this definitely will help us learn more as we can choose specifically what we want to do and then figure out how to do it, as opposed to being told a specific thing. I'm looking forward to adding my own personal touches to the robot I build and the actions I give it.