@Cedric_Lowery and I had the opportunity to join @Margaret_Tanzosh’s class yesterday, to help diagnose some EXP Clawbots build issues her students were having. Some groups were finding that their robots were not driving straight when in reverse.
Cedric asked some great questions, and looked at their builds as they were moving to try to troubleshoot. The students went through several good troubleshooting steps on their own, and were happy to share that. We had them use Tank Drive to isolate the motors, and at that point we could very clearly see that one wheel wasn’t making consistent contact with the ground. So Cedric gave some ideas for how to fix it, which they tried and were successful with! (We noticed that making sure students use the correct size of spacer when attaching the wheels in really important.)
One student asked a great question about the pros/cons of using counterweight vs. trying to fix imbalance with code. He and Cedric had a good talk about the importance of making sure the robot is balanced at all times, as that can make sure that your code runs more reliably.
Another group asked about claw/arm velocity as they were trying to code their controller for the first time. All in all, it was a unique opportunity to interact with both teacher and students and I look forward to learning more about what the class is doing with their robots in the new year!
