07/7/2005

Blake C. Sutton

TAs: William Dubel, Steven Pickles

Instructors: A. A. Arroyo, E. M Schwartz

This week I finally have Teresa walking relatively straight at a pretty acceptable pace on my apartment's glass table and the linoleum on the kitchen floor. Also, even though the new design (with brass pipe fittings) is heavier than the original wood, due to the lack of slippage and the new rigidity, Teresa can carry her battery pack on her back. I plan to test Teresa's walking ability on the floors in Benton and NEB today after class.

In addition, I made the cone housing for the pyro sensor, interfaced it with the on-board ATD, and determined some good threshold values by experimentation. My components (including sensors) have yet to be mounted on the platform, since I have been waiting until my platform is walking. However, if Teresa walks acceptably on the floor at Benton I will mount all my components this weekend. I also plan to integrate my obstacle avoidance code, find or build custom switches (which can interface with my switch PCB) for the other behaviors, and work on Teresa's behavior of seeking out people.

Although the mechanics of walking slowed me down, I think I am still on track for demo day since all my driver software is written and tested in modules at this point, and I finally have a (hopefully) working walking platform.