Worksheet: Right Face

Introduction to Mobile Robotics > Right Face

Follow the steps in the online directions, and answer the questions at the appropriate times.

Construct

Observations:

1. What happened when you ran the program? The robot turned slightly bigger than a quarter turn clockwise. 2. Which motor(s) spun? Motor C spun but not motor B. 3. What direction did each motor spin? Motor C spun forward or anticlockwise and motor B did not spin at all. 4. Did the robots body turn to its left or its right? The robots body turned to its right. 5. About how much did the robots body turn, relative to a full turn? The robot turned slightly more than a quarter of a full turn. 6. This behaviour is called a swing turn. Around what point does the robot swing? The point around which the robot swings around is the wheel on the left side which is controlled by motor B. Contemplate

7. Write a brief one or two sentence description of what each icon in the program Swing Turn does.

The first blocks in this program tells motor C turn on and go forward. The second block tells motor B to also turn on but to wait and not move.

The third block tells motor C to wait for it to move 720 degrees before stopping. Finally the fourth and fifth tell motor C and motor B to stop.

8. The robot started at position A on the diagram shown here. It then turned in place until it reached position B.

i.

Suppose the robot turned to its left to reach position B. What fraction of a full turn did it make to get from A to B? If the robot turned to its left to reach position B it would have to have turned three quarters of a full turn.

ii.

Suppose the robot turned to its right to reach position B. What fraction of a full turn did it make to get from A to B? If the robot turned to its right to reach position B it would turn only a quarter turn.

9. Consider the effects of some additional factors. i. How do you think different wheels will affect the robots ability to turn? Does it matter? The robot turns different ways depending on which motor you turn on and the direction of the motor you turned on. ii. Does the surface on which the robot is turning matter? Yes it does matter, if the surface the robot is turning on is rough the robot has a great chance of one or both of its wheels getting stuck and the robot stopping.

10. The robot in the given program turned right by moving its left wheel forward while holding its right wheel stationary. i. Could you also turn right by holding the left wheel stationary and running the right wheel in reverse? Yes, if you turn the right wheel backwards and hold he left wheel stationary the robot will turn right.

ii.

Write the program to make the robot do the backward right turn proposed in part (i).

Continue: Left Turn

Answer the following:

11. What program blocks are different between the left turn and original right turn behaviours? There was no different blocks added to the left turn than the original right turn the only differences is that we changed the motor that was going forward and the one that was stopping. 12. Could a left turn also be done with the backward-moving wheel idea from question 10? Program your robot to make the backward-left turn. Yes, the left turn could also be done with the backward moving wheel idea from question 10, except the right wheel would be going backward and the left wheel would stop.

Continue Point Turn

Answer the following:

13. Describe the difference between the motion of a swing turn and a point turn. The difference between the motion of a swing turn and a point turn is that even though they both complete the same movement but in the swing turn only one wheel is moving and in the point turn both wheels are moving in different directions. 14. Describe a situation where: i. A swing turn is more useful than a point turn. A situation where a swing turn would be more useful if there as an object blocking one of the wheels and you wanted to get round the object. ii. A point turn is more useful than a swing turn. A point turn would be more useful than a swing turn in a situation where the robot had to turn around quickly and efficiently.