Assignment Overview
The goal of the midterm project was for us to create robotic implementations of a living organism. We had to choose an animal behavior and program our Kittenbots to mimic that behavior.
Animal Behavior
In my research, I looked at a variety of different insects because I was fascinated by their movement patterns, from ant farms to synchronous fireflies. I finally decided to model my project after termite behavior, specifically the termite ink experiment. I found it fascinating that termites communicate solely by smelling and secreting pheromones, which can be manipulated by drawing a line of ink on a surface.
Programming Process
My plan of action was to make my Kittenbot wiggle along a line, which is a seemingly simple task, but I did experience challenges along the way. I chose a simpler behavioral concept because my goal was to make sure that I have a working project, and also become comfortable with programming the Microbit, and Robotbit.
During my first trials, my robot would not recognize the line correctly and spin around in circles instead. It also moved backwards. This confused me because I had downloaded the code online.
However, I then took the time to tinker with the code on the MakeCode editor, and test it out with each change I made. This really helped me become more comfortable with programming, and understand how each component worked together. I also had to consider the track I was creating for the robot. I build my line track out of electrical tape. My first iterations had problems because I did not build a proper track. I had to make sure that the track was wide, with obtuse angles at the turning points. I also had to ensure that the entire track was on one surface, with an adequate contrast between the tape and the surface.
Final Product
Below is the finished project: