As you can see, I am using a tracked design instead of wheels in either the 4 wheel, 6 wheel or 3 wheel designs. I might revisit this in the future, but I made this decision because the three wheel designs were very unstable and I wanted stability. With MNR1 I had problems with the tracks pulling to the left or the right. I belive it has something to do with the wheel base calculation required for the combine motor control in Lejos. The pilot object will drive the two tracks as a single unit handling the turns and the forward/backward for me, but I have to get the calculations right. In addition I had problems with the tracks bending away from the frame because of track tension.
I used a touch sensor with a probe on the end to determine when the robot should stop and I used the light sensor to check intensity to the left and right on a stop . These sensors were mounted on the center line of the body. I had problems with this design because the touch sensor was too high and missed low objects. I also disliked the way the whole robot had to turn to determine which way to go next. I will use the ultrasonic sensor next time.
Overall this was an interesting starting point. I learned a lot from this version.
1. I want a better tracked platform. I want to focus on making the motor and tracks configuration better.
2. I want to seperate the sensor bed motor from the cluster of motors.
3. I want to try the ultrasonic sensor for stop position control.
4. I want the sensors to rotate not the robot.
5. The NXT Brick needs to be angled better to improve connection to the PC.
I'm going to review more sensor options and look at the book out by APress on navigating mazes using the NXT. I believe it is called The Myan Adventure. It looks like a good resource.
