YMCA Buchanan Zero Robotics Team: More Loops, Conditionals, and Advanced Game Functions + Designing Game Strategy

Today's Agenda:

Learn about the more complex math and physics concepts involved in maneuvering the SPHERES satellites, including kinematics:

Kinematics, or the study of motion without considering the forces that cause that motion, are important when you create your program for the SPHERES.
Mass and Weight

What would it take to leap into the future? You would need to achieve warp speed! Is it possible? To find out, review this slideshow.
If your program tells the SPHERES to move to a point, it will activate its thrusters to create a force that will move it in that direction. Once it reaches the point, it will stop activating its thrusters. But the satellite will continue to travel in the same direction unless it is given a command to stay at that point (in which case it will activate the necessary thrusters to keep it at that point). To see the effect of motion on your satellite, try the simple Hints About SPHERES Loop Dynamics tutorial.
Explore more about kinematics: in golf / in a grasshopper's hop

Complete this tutorial to learn to use a for loop to repeat an action a set number of times–in this case, to find the position of the second satellite and program your satellite to move toward the second satellite, but stop halfway.

In order to be successful in ZR, you need to program your player to do different things depending on where it is and where the other player is. As you've already learned, the SPHERES Control "getMyZRState" tells you the following information about your satellite:

Position–where the satellite is in the game area
Velocity–how fast and in what direction the satellite is moving in the game area
Pointing vector–which way the satellite is rotated (that is, where the side with the velcro is pointed within the game area)
Rotation rates–how the satellite spins about any of its three axes (x, y, or z)

You can use this information in conditional statements to implement your player strategy–learn how with this applied conditional statement tutorial!

the Introduction to Game Mode tutorial, in which you will learn to use the game mode (as opposed to the free mode that you have been using up to this point).
the game manual with very detailed information about the competition and rules of the game
the game overview slideshow, with directions for how to complete most advanced functions of the game (it's a review of the skills challenges)
the Let the Games Begin slideshow, to help articulate your game strategy
the results of the regional competitions in Alabama, Georgia, Texas, & Ohio

15 minutes:

Wrap-Up & Close-Out

Here's a preview to our schedule: