MR. ROBBOT

While not being my first foray into programming by any means,  this was my first program that didn't just run on a computer or server.  It actually ran around in real life.  The project was an object avoidance machine using a single infrared sensor and sonar sensor.  Since the range of vision of the single sensor would regularly lead to the robot running into objects near its "shoulder," I chose to make the robot "waddle," a program I implemented that would cause the robot to oscillate over a set distance.   As it would move from left to right it would continuously scan for objects in its way.  Upon finding something, the robot would scan a "sweep" around it and then chose the most open path with a predetermined "open distance."  While the shell I created for it was fun to accentuate the "waddle" since it was a pink blob, it was too heavy for the wheels and actually caused accuracy problems since the motors couldn't rotate with that amount of weight.  However, with access to a vacuum, since I already have a wooden form, I could make easily make a shell out of a polystyrene instead.