Rajeev,I'll share my 2-cents to add to what others have seen. I've coached 4th and 5th graders for a number of years. I have had a team get 2nd place in the robot game without using any sensors at competition (after briefly trying gyro and color sensor for line following). I have had a team with great success using a color sensor for line detection and touch sensor for where to stop. I would estimate maybe a little less than half of Division I teams make good use of a sensor.I really encourage teams to try to use a sensor (or other technique) to get precise movements. The default seems for the kids just to keep trying to add 0.1 rotation here or there or change where the robot starts in order to try to get it to end up where they want it to. Of course if they learn that is not effective, then want to try something else better, that would be great, but I'll admit I really encourage them to do something other than just iterating.This year the sample Crane solution from First has a good simple proportional line follower using color sensor. Given more time I think better to start them with 2-state (right if black, left if white) approach then move to proportional but this year just jumped in with that.For sensors in general, I think the touch sensor is the best place to start. A program that says drive until the touch sensor hit is pretty simple. And definitely remember you can add things to the touch sensor so it can detect a "touch" at more than just the one point.I think the conventional wisdom is the gyro and ultrasonic sensor are not reliable enough to be effective in competition, but I had a team do very well one year using the gyro (though had to be slow turns). And of course they are still effective in learning!Hope that helps.JeffGreetings!Coach of a rookie team here. I am wondering if other teams use the sensors available in the kit?
I see there are plenty of opportunities, like ultrasonic sensor to guide the robot to a certain location away from something else, color sensor for following the black lines on the mat, gyro sensor for accurate turns and straight line driving.............BUT........do FLL teams actually use them? Are they just too difficult to use and/or understand?
I wonder if I should spend the time teaching the kids about these "advanced options", or should I just let them figure it out themselves or let them choose whether or not to use these fancy things.
Sincerely,
Rajeev Mehra
Coach: Ultimate Onions
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