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The Silent Cartographer
Hello again. This is the Silent Cartographer, my entry into the explorerbot challenge. You probably could have guessed what it does by its name. This robot drives around and makes a map of what it sees. I tried to make it as small as possible so it can avoid being seen (To qualify for the stealth bot category as well as data mine and maybe 'the specialist'). It's a little bigger than I wanted but the smaller versions I made didn't really work out.

Posted by:

 NXTesla

Created:

 30 August 2011

Rate:

 

Tags:(?):

 explorerbot, map, small, simple, ultrasonic, sensor, display, program

The Map

Each pixel on the NXT display is the equivalent of a 14x14 inch square in real life. I didn't want to make the map that big but it's simpler that way and I didn't have time to change the program. I wish I had a better map I could upload but it's hard to make one inside because the map is so big and it's raining outside.

Program Part 1

The original program was 9.063 MB so I had to split the program into three different parts. The instructions for putting them back together are written in the program ( 3 programs actually ). Oh yeah, you may have a few problems with the software freezing up ( it's sad how poorly the software handles large programs); I'm not entirely sure how to move certain parts of the program without making it freeze. If you have any problems, I'm sorry but I don't know what to do about it. Part 3 will be in another project due to their file size. The video will also be in the other project.

Bug Fixes!!!

If you want to make the map bigger (of a smaller area), you can try these ideas; I haven't actually tried them but they should work. Pic.1 : This is the move block which drives the robot forward. If you change the number of rotations from 2 to 1 it will make the robot drive forward 7 inches instead of 14. After you change that, you have to change the 14 in Pic. 2 to about 10. After this the map should be one-fourth the size of the original map (7 in. to a pixel) . The robot will have to stop twice as often, but it won't have to cover as much distance. I figured out how to fix this problem while I was writing a comment to NXTein1996 explaining why the map was so small (or big depending on which way you look at it),when I realized that it was a really easy problem to fix...Not the first time that's happened to me. P.S. if you want to make the robot start in the center of the map instead of the bottom, all you have to do is change the first 'Y_coordinate' variable to 32.

Comments

10 most recent comments out of 13  [VIEW ALL]
  • NXTesla

  • norama: I have a program that lets me use C++ but it can only control the NXT through USB or Bluetooth. I don't have Bluetooth on my computer and I'm pretty sure that you have to use NXT-G for the building challenges. NXT-G can get kind of annoying sometimes...

  • Posted 622 days and 12 hours ago


  • NXTesla

  • @NXTlover111 I know, it's SO annoying! I use C++ whenever I can. I can't actually use it to write a program for the NXT but I can write a program for my computer which controls the NXT through USB or Bluetooth connections. I'm still looking for software to program with written languages but once I find a good one I'm not sure how I plan to post it on NXTlog. Thanks for commenting!

  • Posted 621 days and 13 hours ago



  • NXTesla

  • Thanks Ultrasonic13.

  • Posted 614 days and 7 hours ago


  • NXTein1996

  • The map could be a little bigger, but it is a cool bot.

  • Posted 603 days and 12 hours ago


  • NXTesla

  • NXTein1996, I just finished writing a really long comment to you and then I figured out how to fix one of the problems I had with the map size, so now I'm rewriting the comment. I may post a better version of this program in the near future; I don't have the robot anymore but it shouldn't be that hard to fix. Thanks for the unintended help! =)

  • Posted 602 days and 9 hours ago


  • NXTein1996

  • Thanks for posting the extra section! Now I understand why the map was small...

  • Posted 598 days and 3 hours ago


  • NXTesla

  • NXTein1996,no problem. It was easy enough to fix. I'm not quite sure if 'Bug Fixes' is the right name for it,but it works...

  • Posted 597 days and 6 hours ago


  • Zoom-zoom2

  • cool!

  • Posted 525 days and 4 hours ago



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