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.

Week 7 thoughts

What I learned:

-No matter what you're doing you have to troubleshoot. At several different instances building my sensor I thought I had problems when it turned out I didn't have any problems at all. First, after setting up the circuit on the breadboard for my sensor to hook up to the computer I wasn't able to get the LED to light up. Switched out the LEDs to see if that was the problem, rewired everything to try to figure out what I did wrong, but nothing worked. Finally Jim suggested that I just plug it into the computer and see what happened. Turns out the circuit was set up fine, and as soon as I wrote a program the LED blink as it was supposed to.

Next I hooked everything up with the variable resistor to prepare for the connection of the thermistor. After connecting the variable resistor and changing the resistance I saw no change in the output on the computer. Kept trying and trying to figure out why it wasn't changing like it should but nothing was working. Finally decided to hook up the thermistor just to give it a shot. As soon as I had the thermistor wired the output on the computer started doing exactly what it was supposed to and I was able to begin calibrating the sensor just fine. Shows you just have to keep sticking with stuff I guess and eventually you'll figure it out.

What I'm excited about:

-Spring Break! Haha but seriously its pretty cool how fast we are moving in class, almost done with sensors already and getting ready to move on to doing some robotics. I have no idea what to expect when it comes time to build our robots, so I'm really intrigued as to how that is going to go. Pretty pumped to give it a shot!

Suggestions:

-I think everything is going pretty smoothly as of right now so I can't think of anything at the moment that I think needs to change. Just going to keep chugging along

Week 6 thoughts

What I learned:

I really like working with the sensors. Wiring circuits and working with stuff like that is not something I have ever really had any experience doing, but after being a bit slow starting off I am really getting the hang of it now and really enjoying making stuff on the breadboard. I am really picking up new skills in this class, which is one of the reasons I signed up for this class. I am glad I am expanding my knowledge and hopefully that will continue.

What got me excited:

Continuing on with the next step of the sensor project. My sensor turned out working well (wooo passed the test) so now I'm pumped to start getting the sensor to interact with the computer so that it can be programmed. This past class I built the circuit so next class I'll be all ready to go to connect it to the computer and start with that process.

Suggestions:

It didn't effect me, but I think it was frustrating for the guys who were trying to get the computer going but weren't even able to get logged in and the program opened properly. But thats all part of the process I suppose.

Week 5 thoughts

What I learned:

Its a good thing I started my second scratch project early. I had planned to do a pool game and had been working on it for most of the two weeks of class before I decided only a few days before that I wanted to completely change my project and do something different. I wasn't really happy with how the pool game was going-it seemed like I was borrowing a lot of code from other pool games published online, and quite a few other people in the class were doing pool as well. I decided to abandon that and try to make a predator prey interaction. I think the end result was pretty good, so I'm glad I was on track with my programming in order to be able to recover from hitting a roadblock like this.

What got me excited:

Working with the sensors and getting mine to work. The first day when we went in to see the sensor project I was pretty intimidated. I understood all the concepts behind what we were making and everything that was in the first two chapters of the book, but creating it myself was a completely different challenge. I couldn't really grasp how to make what was on the paper materialize on the breadboard, so I did some more reading at home that really helped give me a better idea of what I was facing. After getting over that initial intimidation I had no problem getting started, and even though I had some problems at first I was able to keep working through and eventually get it. Having that light start blinking right at the end of class was pretty rewarding.

Suggestions/What I would change:

I thought it was really cool that Dr. Thomas came down to check out our projects. I think it was a good idea and it might make sense to do this for some of the other projects if any other faculty want to see what we have worked on.

Week 4 thoughts

What got me excited:

My pool game is moving along slowly but surely. It really sounds like such a simple project, but there are so many things interacting that the coding actually is getting pretty complex. I am trying to stick to the fundamentals for now and get the foundation working before I keep building it up. Right now I think that I have all of the basic functions figured out of how to get two balls to interact with each other, the wall, the cue, etc. Now its just a matter of adding on to this so that a full set of balls can do this at once. Hopefully now that the basis is down the rest of the project shouldn't get too complicated.

What I learned:

While its nice to concentrate on one thing at a time, I think I need to remember that there is more than one thing going on at once. I was getting pretty into developing my pool project but I wish I had taken some time out of that to work with the circuits at some point in the past two weeks. At least my pool project is moving along well and hopefully I'll be able to jump right into the sensor and circuit stuff once I'm done with that. I'm going to make sure I read all of the handouts on the web so I'm ready to go right away with a good idea of what I need to do.

What I would change:

We were on our own this week being pretty independent with our work without class meetings, so I don't really have any suggestions for things that should change. I'm excited to keep plugging away with the pool project for next weeks presentation, and then to switch gears and start working with sensors.

Week three thoughts

So its week three already and we are continuing to move right along.

What I learned this week:

Other people are a very valuable resource. After our presentations of our projects I spent some time looking at other peoples programs, especially the code they used to create what they did. I also used the scratch website forums and project gallery to look up some things I did not quite understand. It was very interesting to see the different ways that people approached their programming. For example I struggled with the use of numerous variables in order to control the program and have the sprites do different tasks. After looking at some other peoples programs I learned how to use the broadcast command to have certain functions performed. While what I was doing worked, it wasn't the most efficient way, and so by sharing with other people I was able to learn something new.

What got me excited:

I am pretty pumped that we got our first sensor assignment this week. I have never built something like that before, so I think it is going to be a good challenge for me and I'm excited to get started. Reading the first two chapters of the book much of the material is a review from physics classes I have taken, so I am glad I have a foundation I will be able to work off. I am sure the process of building a sensor will start slowly for me as I try to figure out something new, but I'm ready to give it my best shot.

What could change:

I really liked how the presentation day went and that we got to show our projects to the class. It was fun to see everyones work. I think it would be cool if we voted on prizes for our projects-things like best overall, most fun, best glitch, etc. Winners could get a candy bar or something. Other than that I think that class has been going great so far.

2nd week thoughts

So after another full week of class and our first project completed I think I'm getting a better idea of what this course will be like.

What I learned this week:

-Programming is only as difficult as you make it. Working with scratch was very easy and the program generally makes it very simple to accomplish things. However at the same time this can also make things difficult because you have to be able to figure out how to achieve what you want with only a basic set of code. As I went about creating my program I continually hit obstacles where it took me a while to figure out how exactly what approach to take in order to accomplish what I wanted. Obviously there are several different ways of coding to make the same thing happen, but I thought it was fun problem solving to figure out what would work best with my program. I also thought it was interesting that I spent much more time debugging than actually writing the program. It was fun to challenge myself to keep improving the program throughout the writing process.

What excited me about this weeks activities:

-Getting our second scratch assignment. I was very happy with how my first project ended up as I put a lot of time into to make sure it ran smoothly. I am pumped to work on the second project and see what types of more advanced things I can incorporate. I like the challenge of programming because really you have the freedom to create anything you want to as long as you put in the effort to do it.

What would I suggest to change:

-I think some people might say that they would have liked more time to complete the first scratch project, however I think the amount of time we had was good because it forced us to learn how to prioritize with programming and establish a base for the program before we start adding things. At the beginning of the project I had tons of grand ideas about things I wanted to include in the program, but with the time constraint I was forced to stick to what was more realistic and then later add things after I had the foundation of the program completed.

1st week thoughts

So starting off this week I was very pleased with the outlook of class for the year. Here's some thoughts so far:

What have I learned this week:

I've realized that for me programming is really a combination of two things: art and science. Working on my scratch program so far there have been times when I've been challenged creatively to develop some cool ideas. On the other hand, I have also hit some points so far where I know exactly what I would like the program to accomplish but have to solve problems on the programming side to make it succeed. So far working on the scratch program definitely has me using "both sides" of my brain, which definitely has me interested for what will be coming for the rest of the semester.

What excited me about this weeks activities:

I definitely got excited about class as it has become clear we will be working very independently to develop new skills and understanding. I think this class will be a very refreshing change from other lecture-based classes I have. This class is definitely one where what I get out of it depends mostly on what I put in, so I pretty pumped to challenge myself in this course. I think that this class could be very useful for me in the future so I'm excited to learn as much as I can.

What would I suggest to change:

As of right now it is difficult for me to think of any changes that this class could benefit from. Right away we were thrown right into the material to experiment with things for ourselves, but I think that so far that has worked really well and has made me very motivated to put in the effort required to learn the material. As the semester progresses I hope that I still have this enthusiasm for what we are working on.

Hello

Just as an intro to what is going on here, I've set this blog up as a reflection of my SMS 491 class (Robotics, sensors, and programming). Since the class is pretty new this type of feedback is going to be useful both for myself and the instructor as a way of developing the course and allowing me to get the most out of what we are covering. Check back for weekly updates about my progress and thoughts.