Introduction to Robotics

Learning interesting stuff about robotics.

Introduction to Robotics

Homework 1

The code for this homework can be found here.

Task requirements:

there will be 3 potentiometers, each of which corresponding to an RGB color
gather input from each of the potentiometers
properly map the value from a 0-1023 range to a 0-255 range
send the converted value to the right output PIN

The set-up:

The video showcasing the functionality can be found here.

Interesting challenges:

there is a single 5V pin on the Arduino board and 3 different potentiometers which require a source; then I recalled how a breadboard works and found the solution: to use the + and - columns

Homework 2

The code for this homework can be found here.

The task is to build a simple traffic lights system.

Task requirements:

2 LEDs for people lights
3 LEDs for cars lights
1 buzzer
one button

The set-up:

The video showcasing the functionality can be found here.

Clean code thoughts

I was tempted to refactor common logic into separated functions. For instance, I'd encapsulate these lines in a beepBuzzer function:

if (isBuzzerActive) {
  tone(BUZZER_PIN, 1000);
} else {
  noTone(BUZZER_PIN);
}

unsigned long elapsedBuzzerTime = millis() - buzzerStartTimestamp;
if (elapsedBuzzerTime > BUZZER_STATE3_INTERVAL_MS) {
  isBuzzerActive = !isBuzzerActive;
  buzzerStartTimestamp = millis();
}

However, the problem I had encountered was that the function could not be 100% pure. As in, beepBuzzer might need a beepInterval, but 1) it can't be declared in the function's body and 2) the beepInterval might also be different, depending the context the function is used in(i.e. different stages require different intervals). So, I decided that it wasn't worth it.