Today we learned a valuable lesson about friction.
We got together today to film both Tidy Up The Toys and Up The Garden Path. We started with Toys because it was supposed to be easy. It was supposed to be easy because Charlie and Kevin had tested out the robot loads of times on their kitchen floor and it was doing perfect runs 80% of the time.
We set up the arena at the office, and taped out the squares and lines on the back of a big piece of white canvas. It was the same one we used for Feed the Fish so we didn't think it would be a problem.
But then we tried and tried and tried so many times. It kept getting the first turn wrong, or missing blocks even though the gyro sensor was working.
Eoin's dad Colm said that maybe the wheels were slipping, and we should get rid of the canvas and try it on the floor. We put his idea in the maybe pile, and kept working on the canvas.
Another hour later Colm The Voice Of Reason suggested the floor again. Again we didn't listen to reason and kept trying little adjustments and one more time.
While we were trying 11 more times, Colm taped out the measurements on the floor on the other side of the room. Then we tried it 17 more times, and then we said OK Colm we'll do it your way.
The wheels did not slip on the floor. We got a near perfect run on the first try. We got a perfect 29-second run on the second try.
I guess Colm's good for more than just buying us Subway Cookies.
(We will post the real submission video when we get it up on Youtube, but until then here's our closest attempt on the canvas.)
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