Hello NEWBIE ALERT!

[jarope]

Hi All,

totally new to java and nxt's so please bare with me.

I am working as part of a team and what I am asking is advice on whether or not we are approaching this in the way more educated NXT users would.

I am working on an assignment which is fairly open to interpretation. Basically we need to move the robot from one wall to another which is opposite. Once it reaches the wall it must stop. On the way it needs to deal with moving objects (ping pong balls) against a wall.

We have the ultrasonic to detect vertical walls which will be a physical boundary. For the finish we are going to use a think black line which will be detected by the light sensor as our stop().

By using the ultrasonic sensor in this way the robot can move around knocking balls against a wall and then turn to go looking for more until it reaches the other end.

I think this all sounds reasonable, even if not the most elegant way of doing things. None of us know Java so we can live with it.

A couple of Extra Points will be given if we can deal with a few more variables. These are:-

Another Robot - not hitting. - To me this seems like the ultra sensor or 4 of them 1 on each side
Different size objects. - a good sized sweeping arm?
Finding the quickest route whilst still clearing the objects. - Well I found something about a class called shortestpathfinder but I can't find any examples of it in use.

So are we missing the obvious? Is there something really neat that we could include to jazz up the project?

May be basic I know but time is against us, hence my seeking your guidance and input.

Great project by the way to all those involved - I all ways loved lego but Mindstorms well, that's another world again!

sincerely thanks in advance for any comments.

jarope

[guntram]

hi!

if you are not into java, i assume you are at least into c++ or c#, otherwise i guess this will be quite not an easy task to do, especially if you lack time.

if you could paste some code where you have problems, i think someone can take a look over it and check out what you need.

[jarope]

Thanks Guntram,

As for code well I know nothing..almost. we are learning as we go along so it is a trial and error attack on it.

I have ditched the idea of using the pathfinder.. that is for another time,when I have time.

I think our basic concept is ok and that we should be able to cobble something together.

many thanks