roborogue #1

the journey

when DK shines his holy light down upon you, you have no choice but to take up the mantle of his glory and spread his message.

thus it was, again this year, same as it always had been. DK had spoken, and there was no alternative. so we set forth on the journey, familiar yet so inexorably new. we trod the path, on the lookout for power cubes and inspiration. this year, our task was to defeat the video game boss by scaling and to collect power cubes, placing them in vaults for powerups and trying to control the switch and scale.

traditional designs may work. yet they may not. the very fun lay in its mystery. that so insolvable, inescapable mystery. it frustrates me down to my very core. luckily, sir Ri3D is always there to save the day, give us lowly peasants some inspiration. the journey always seems simple enough, until you're down to the last day and you and your team are frantically trying to put together a robot that can actually move.

have you any idea how difficult it is to take an abstract concept and form it into a living being? unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, humanity is not at the point yet where robots are commonplace. and besides, most of the robots built aren't humanoid in the slightest.

think about it. how do you tell a robot to grab something when it doesn't have arms?

do you say, "now there's a cube. grab it."?

NOOOOO

that's like telling a 2 month old, "see that pencil? pick it up and start writing."

any 2 month old that can do that is a veritable genius. sign me up to take lessons from this great infant. i'm not even kidding. that's how incredible that is. imagine if all 2 month olds could do that. this world would be overrun with tiny creatures a fifth of your size and they'd all be so much smarter than you. way to heap on the self-confidence.

but i digress.

when you get a robot to do so much as roll forward a few inches, it's a huge victory. it's the most amazing feeling on earth. you got so many tiny pieces, each intricate and moody, with minds of their own, to work together and accomplish something. it's a victory for everyone: the programmers, the electrical people, the mechanical people, and even the spectators. i would imagine it's almost the same feeling as seeing something live and prosper.

i wouldn't know though. any plant i get my hands on eventually ends up dying. in another world, i am feared and widely known as the plant killer, P.K. for short.

you have to think in terms of how the robot thinks. in essence, you become the robot. easy enough. i am a robot already.

so how do i go forward and pick something up?

dissecting the elements of my motion, i have to lift my arm, move my legs in a specific pattern so that i move forward, open my fingers, lower my arm toward the object, then close my fingers around it, and then lift my arm again. of course, being the sentient being i am, i don't require thinking through all these steps for such a simple task. i just grab the object. of course, my attempts don't always succeed. that's cause i'm clumsy.

but robots are precise, as much as you can make it. you have to break down the robot's motion to each element and create commands for each part. when playing the commands in succession, the robot should be able to grab an object. that simple motion, when converted to code and motors and wires and metal and mechanics, is super complicated. makes you exhausted to even think of it.

but i'm getting too technical. the gist of it is, you start off with a concept from the game bestowed upon us by the great DK, may he spread his glory far and wide, and turn it into a functioning robot in all of 6 weeks, while dealing with school and other work.

now you know why robotics kids are always stressed and exhausted from the beginning of january to late february. at that point in our lives, we have no lives.

nothing exists beyond robots, wires, code, aluminum, sensors, motors, bolts, roborios.

absolutely nothing.

welcome to FIRST.

enjoy your stay!