Robot App Store

Robot App™ Description

This robot's mission is to explore all around your room, house, or wherever you set it loose. It tries to "see" walls and other obstacles before running into them, and then turns its head to look left and right to determine which direction looks the best to turn.

In case it does accidentally run into something, a bumper in the front triggers a touch sensor to make the robot stop and then decide which way to turn.

This program makes the robot repeat the following steps:
1. Go straight until either the ultrasonic sensor sees something close or the bumper is hit.
2. If the bumper was hit, make a sound and back up a little.
3. Turn the head to look right and then left, and use the ultrasonic sensor to determine which direction appears to have more space, then turn in that direction.

Installation Instructions

Delivered as:

Code

1. Download the building instructions from here.
2. Download the .rbt file by clicking on "Download" above.
3. Download the .rbt file to your NXT
4. Have Fun!

Robot App Requirements

Software

1. Windows or Mac computer with;
2. LEGO NXT Mindstorms Software.

Hardware:

1. Standard set of LEGO NXT Mindstorms 2.0 (#8547)
2. USB Cable or Bluetooth device.

Other requirements:

Around 20 minutes to build the robot.

Usage Instructions

Make sure the "eyes" of the ultrasonic sensor are pointed straight ahead before running the Explorer program, so that robot is not confused about which way is which.

Challenges:
Set your Explorer loose and see if you can predict which way it will turn each time it approaches an obstacle, and try to guess where it will end up. Will it get stuck anywhere?

For an advanced programming challenge, try modifying the Explorer program to change what happens when the Explorer "sees" an obstacle or bumps into something. Can you come up with a better navigation strategy that is more interesting or less likely to get stuck?