Finished network algorithm

I was able to finish a path algorithm for the ION mini-urban challenge. It finds a short path through the road map, along with passing through specific points that are required. The algorithm is based on a modified Floyd's shortest path algorithm that I have used in the past for other things. For a small network, it seems to be the one that usually works out best. I could have added a search tree to the algorithm but I needed to keep it simple to explain to the students. I am not allowed to program any of the code so I have to convey the idea and let them look into it. I passed it on to the teacher and he and some students are reviewing it to see if it is something that they can use. I can't program anything for them but I can point them in directions by stating, "have you considered this?" This is proving to be fun.

Was unable to get to the Robotics meeting

Unfortunately I was unable to get to the WT Woodson Robotics meeting yesterday. My work interfered with my desire to go over the ION Challenge algorithm and possible explain another approach to programming for the challenge to the team. I hear that the BotBall challenge has started up and the information is slowly working its way across the country. Sometime later this month is when we should be seeing the 2011 challenge. Unfortunately it is not published for general consumption on the BotBall site or I would have already been all over it. Again, I am having fun with this.

ION Mini-Urban Challenge in the Works

The WT Woodson Robotics Team will be working on the ION Mini-Urban Challenge in the near future. The challenge is to put a Lego NXT car through the paces of a small city. To quote, "The purpose of this competition is to challenge high school students to design and operate a robotic car built from a LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education kit that can accurately navigate through a LEGO® city." We will have a regional competition on March 19-20, 2011 with the national competition on May 21, 2011 in Washington. Not much time to get everything together for the competition. Like BotBall, the ION challenge uses autonomous robots to do the challenge. The team has been working hard on getting used to the LEGO NXT "block" in programming. The NXT-G language is rather inventive, but lacks some things that would make the programming much easier. I am going to put in a word for RobotC with the instructor. I believe that we can change the programming language and get away with it according to the rules. We are not allowed to change the operating system in the "block" to something different, like Linux.