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First Lego League in Virginia and DC

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Subject:
From:
Jerry Lorengo <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Jerry Lorengo <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 25 Nov 2014 08:28:26 -0500
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Totally true Fredrik - thats what makes FLL so fun!

The kids sometimes get too particular about everything - I tell them that
variations effect everyone and trial and error is the name of teh
engineering game - thats why we invented the safety factor (overengineer to
be on the safe side).



On Tue, Nov 25, 2014 at 8:14 AM, Fredrik Nyman <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> I think that you can generalize the lesson even more, into "variability is
> built into the robot game, and the key to success is building robust
> solutions that take that into account".
>
> Consider: from game to game (on the same table), battery power level might
> change.  Models might be put in slightly different positions, and the robot
> might be in a slightly different starting position.
>
> Between tables, additional factors come into play: the illumination is
> different, the mats aren't the same distance from the walls, and so on.
>
> Then there's the variability built into the equipment: traction will vary
> from tire to tire, there's slack in the motor gearing, and so on.
>
> (Calibrated) sensors will help you build robust solutions, as will simple
> things like starting jigs and bumpers so that the robot can drive into a
> wall to square up itself.
>
> On Tue, Nov 25, 2014 at 5:44 AM, John Davison <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
>> As part of our rookie lessons learned for next season, does anyone have
>> thoughts about the pros and cons of using rechargeable vs. regular
>> batteries?  Early on, we found that our robot performance varied quite a
>> bit based on how fresh the batteries were, and we seemed to be burning
>> through lots of regular batteries.  So we switched to rechargeable
>> batteries soon before the competition, but then had to tweak our
>> programming because the output of rechargeable batteries is different from
>> regular batteries!  If we stick with rechargeable batteries for our next
>> robot design, are there any potential problems or downside that others have
>> experienced?
>>
>> John Davison
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
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