A nice surface for robots to drive around?

[Pito Salas]

I want to create a clean white surface on which I can mark clean black lines (or electricians tape) to make tracks and mazes for students to drive their robots through.

I’ve looked at rolls of construction paper and interlocking plastic tiles like are used for children’s play rooms or gyms.

Any suggestions for other things to look at or specific products that you’ve got some experience with?

Thanks!

Pito

[Chris Albertson]

What size? Must it be reusable?

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[Pito Salas]

It needs to be able to be put out and then removed. I could use as small as 5x5’ but a little bigger would be better. If it’s cheap like paper I would tape sheets together and mark lines on them. Still it would have to survive multiple uses but then disposed. If it was more expensive of course we wouldn’t throw it out. I want students to do line following, maze solving and similar assignments.

Pito Salas
Computer Science
Brandeis Univeristy


> On Jul 7, 2024, at 9:42 PM, Chris Albertson <alberts...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> What size? Must it be reusable?

> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/hbrobotics/58404068-E2B7-4D31-BA81-0AB4BD031BD3%40gmail.com.

[Eva Carrender]

I have been using TriFold poster boards.  You can purchase from Staples for $15. Then apply black or colored electrical tape as applicable to your challenge.  Remember to let the tension on the tape relax before applying to the board or it will pull up. 

The nice things about these is they last a long time, fold up to protect your layout,  and easy to store against a wall.

If you place them on the floor you'll need to remind students not to step on them.

You can also invert them, place on stacked boxes and create ramps.

Have fun making!

All the best,
Eva Carrender
Technology Information Instructor 


Making Learning Fun

Sent from my Android, please excuse brevity and typos.

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[Ross Lunan]

Pito, let me share a material to make a "Track Following" race , I purchased at Walmart for kid's playrooms floors, pic attached. I had to shop around at a couple different Stores to get a set with the same background color, and used colored duct and narrow stIcky plastic tape.
Cheers

Ross

[Michael Wimble]

In the club, we used to buy white floor times, one-foot square. Then we’d lay out various patterns with different kinds of low-sheen black tape, 3/4” wide (as I recall). As long as the entrance and exit on a tile was at the center point at a tile, (e.g.,  center one side to center opposite, center one side, half way across, right angle, center to adjacent side), then we could just drop the tiles down and make a new pattern at will.

The problems were:

• The tiles didn’t stay tightly together, and even the tiniest of gaps often was sensed as a line by most robots.
• The reflectance of the tile and the tape matters greatly. As the angle of the overhead lights changed, not all robots were able to adapt to the difference in reflectance between light and dark.

[Bob Smith]

On 7/7/24 19:30, Pito Salas wrote:
> It needs to be able to be put out and then removed. I could use as small as 5x5’ but a little bigger would be better. If it’s cheap like paper I would tape sheets together and mark lines on them. Still it would have to survive multiple uses but then disposed. If it was more expensive of course we wouldn’t throw it out. I want students to do line following, maze solving and similar assignments.

Slightly off topic but your sensors make a big difference
for line following robots. Most cheap sensors use IR and
I found it difficult to look at something that was black
and know if if was black in IR. I found that most black
things (say electrical tape) are not black in IR.

You might not have a choice but if you do you should consider
a visible light sensor that matches a student's sense of what
is black or white. I had good luck using a VTT9814FH ($0.63
at Digi-key) and black masking tape

[Pito Salas]

Actually we use the pi camera for that. It’s mounted in front. They crop out all but the bottom x% that should see mostly white except for the black line.

In previous years they got all excited with making lines with different color tape on a plain grey floor. They would get it to work with lots of trial and error until the sun changed position or the line changed direction relative to the light. So this year I am giving them a more controlled environment. I am of two minds of that though. I am artificially restricting the world they work in and so they don’t get exposed to the vagaries of light and dark and glare etc.

Pito

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[James K. Bond]

Instead of simplifying, how about pre-preparing information on calibrating to allow for varying light conditions—for after they start seeing problems. The human eye dynamically adapts after all.

> On Jul 8, 2024, at 09:36, Pito Salas <pito...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Actually we use the pi camera for that. It’s mounted in front. They crop out all but the bottom x% that should see mostly white except for the black line.

> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/hbrobotics/0188B0E8-69FB-4749-908F-1C951589507F%40gmail.com.

[Pito Salas]

I am not sure of a good way to explain and teach that … and also, time. The course is an overview of robotics using ROS and we don’t have time to go to that level at least I don’t see how. Open to suggestions of course!

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[Ralph Hipps]

Pito,

I've attached my slides for our original line maze for reference. It has info about the materials we used, including the special black tape for the lines.

I would not advise buying floor tiles though, they're VERY heavy and hard to transport, and they get brittle and fall apart after a year or two.

I would suggest something like the white folding cardboard idea with 6" line spacing. I've been meaning to look into that myself and test it out, but have not prioritized it.

Ralph

[Pito Salas]

Thanks! Just to clarify I was thinking about the kinds of square interlocking tiles used often around exercise gear like stationary bikes etc. The thing that is attractive about that is that they can be rearranged into different patterns. This may be a pipe dream of mine :)

The pdf is quite interesting, it gives me some cool ideas!

Thanks again

PIto

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> <HBRC A-Mazing Line Maze Challenge 2021.pdf>

[Carl Sutter]

I have a stack of those in my garage from old RSSC competitions.  :-)  The versatility was great, but the other criticisms are valid.