Wednesday, January 19, 2011

End course project 4: Mid-Project information


CTU: Counter Terrorist Unit. The robot controlled by one of the two humans players, whose purpose is to find the bomb planted by the terrorist and then defuse it before the end of the timer.

TU: Terrorist Unit. The robot controlled by one of the two humans players, whose purpose is to carry and then plant the bomb before the end of the timer.

Bomb: The NXT unit that carries the IR Ball and represents the bomb transported by the TU. It cannot move by itself, but it autonomously dictates the rules for the whole game.

IR Ball: The HiTechnic Infrared Ball that emits infrared light and simulates the bomb hold by the Bomb unit, that has to be pushed away by the CTU.


Terrorist’s goal:
The main objective of a terrorist is to plant the bomb within the given time. After planting the bomb, he has to protect it from CT until it explodes.

Counter Terrorist’s goal:
He must push the ball off the bomb to prevent from planting it. If the bomb is already planted, he has to defuse it.

The game starts with a 5 minutes timer (editable). During those 5 minutes TU must plant the bomb. If TU doesn’t plant the bomb within the game time, CTU wins. When the bomb is “planted”, CTU may find and defuse the bomb. IR sensor on CTU can help finding the IR ball.

When the ball is pushed off the bomb it becomes “defusable”, it will also generate random string of 10 letters [ygbr] and send it to CTU. The sequence will be displayed on the screen in a form of cables. CTU will have to remember the color sequence and cut the cables in the right order by pressing the corresponding colored buttons on the controller. As soon as the first color is pressed, the colors will disappear. Each failure will subtract 8-15 seconds from the game time and new sequence will be generated. If the time runs out while the bomb is planted, TU wins. If the right color sequence is given before game time runs out CTU.

Picture 11 : How to control one mobile robot with the pad


We always managed to work altogether at the same time and as often as possible in the same location. So the group members participating have -almost- always been Anders Dyhrberg, Guillaume Depoyant, Michal Owsinsky and Michaël Ludmann; that is LEGO International group. Before Christmas holidays we had about a meeting twice a week lasting many hours (usually from mid-afternoon to midnight).

During holidays, due to the distance separating our members, we had to organize Skype meetings, where we discussed about each other current advancement in his part of the project, planning new tasks and deadlines, and sometime working together while Skype was on.

Starting on the 4th of January, we have had a long meeting almost every day until the final deadline that was Thursday, the 13th of January 2010. We first worked together in the LEGOLab itself before moving to the place[1] where the field used for the game is. Field testing began on Sunday, the 9th of January. There was no assignment to give to anyone from one session to another, since we met everyday together during all our free and available time.


We have stopped counting hours spent during each session on the project, but an average of eight hours per day could be a good estimate. Those entire reasons boil down to this statement: the next reports are organized differently in a more consistent way regarding the work done. To be absolutely clear, we preferred to split our reports into specific parts of our work. This way, the reader does not have to go back and forth between several pages in order to understand how the message framework is working for instance.




[1] Rezultat, the company that let us use its playfield : http://www.rezultat.dk/UNDERHOLDNING/BATTLESTATION/spiltyper.htm

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