lab 13

Date: 2010-12-09 Thu
Attendances: Carsten, Dan
Duration: 11:15 - 16:15

Continuing project.

This week we implemented the score-based behavior controller.

The controller is very similar to the one from lab 10, except this one
assigns scores to each behavior, sorts the list and execute the
behavior with the highest score.

The main problem here is designing a robot with a behavior that has
some good middle-ground. Meaning simply having one of it's behavior
properties as high or low as possible always be the best option is not
a interesting problem.

We have ended up with a robot that sometimes searches for water and
sometimes hunts for other robots. When in search-mode it won't catch
other robots even if it bumps into one. When finding a source of water
(a patch of coloured paper on the ground) the robot stands still and
refills its energy. When in hunt-mode the robot goes faster and if it
bumps into another robot it kills it.

Our robots move around randomly. It does this by having 5 different
move modes (forward, slightly left, slightly right, sharply left,
sharply right). Each mode has a even chance of being selected. Each
mode runs in an some time interval, after which a new move-mode is
selected.

The basic premise of the robot is it has a hunger indicator. the
hunger indicator decreases over time. When a robot is hungry it
searches for food. When it is not hungry it hunts for other robots.

The track we imaging is a flat white area. It is surrounded by a black
edge. And food sources are grey pieces of paper. The light sensor can
be calibrated to indicate what is the track, the edge and food.

Hunting for other robots is done using the sonic distance sensor.

Log

We started by making the behavior controller

We then made some behaviors, and decided on hardware setup

We then made the logger. We had trouble with this. We stopped before
we figured it out.

classes

• [X] Bluetooth
• [X] PC logger (server)
• [X] NXJ logger (client)
• [X] score-based behavior controller
• [X] behaviors
  • Move randomly (search)
  • Hunt
  • Eat (check light sensor, stop and eat if food is found and hunger
    is low enough)
• [X] Hardware setup
• [X] Light sensor values calibration
• [X] Behaviors using sensors correctly
• [X] Personality
• [X] PC breeder (Personality merge)