Weekly Report 07.04.06

Over the break week I did several things. First, I mounted my IR sensors and got rudimentary obstacle avoidance working. The code will be re-written to take advantage of additional sensors as they become available. I also had to order a few more parts in order to solve a space limitation I was facing (I needed to order an LCD with a smaller pin requirement and another perf board for mounting).

In addition to obstacle avoidance I built and tested a circuit for light following involving a Comparator and photovoltaic cells. I believe this circuit will be more efficient than the usual CDS cells. Also, the 'sensors' do not require additional power as they produce their own. While the cells are far to small to produce sufficient power to be worth routing through the engines, at the very least they do not consume any energy.

By the end of the week I should have these sensors mounted on the robot and the additional software to run them should be created. At that point, the only major system that is needed will be the RF tracking ability.