For the DIY Obstacle Course challenge, we are required to build our own obstacle course featuring level changes such as ramps, different terrain, and many different obstacles for Roboty to tackle. We can complete this challenge by remote control or autonomously – we chose remote control. Aiden has gotten really good at controlling Roboty so we decided he would control Roboty for the course and I would record the video. The challenge will be judged by three independent judges on several criteria, including how imaginative the course is, the complexity of the obstacle course, the amount of humor on display, the agility of our robot, and the skill of the driver. You also receive additional points if you use some audio commands so we decided to incorporate that into our course since Roboty already supports voice control. We must record an uninterrupted video of the challenge and complete it in under 5 minutes.
We spent several weeks building ramps and platforms and gathering various items we would use throughout the obstacle course. We had some 1×6 inch wood boards and lots of 1/4 inch thick hardboard left over from building our arena which worked perfectly for building a bunch of ramps. We wanted to put Canada flags throughout our course but finding Canada flags several weeks before Canada Day turned out to be almost as hard as buying toilet paper in 2020. We had planned to record the obstacle course run over a weekend so several days before, we got everything setup throughout the house. Unfortunately, it rained all weekend and on and off for another week so we had to postpone our run since part of the obstacle course goes outside. At least this allowed us to practice all of the indoor parts of the obstacle course over and over again. Although, it also meant we had to live with an obstacle course setup in our house for over a week!
The course starts in our garage where Roboty has to drive under and around various tools and obstacles. We built a big ramp up the stairs and into the house so Roboty could make it to the rest of the obstacle course. Roboty has really slippery wheels so it was difficult for him to make it up the rubber mat on the ramp.
Once in the house, Roboty is faced with a spinning cross. Aiden has to time his entry and exit perfectly in order to make it through, only to have the path blocked by a hammer (well, a rubber mallet). In the rules for the challenge, it was suggested that you could run your robot over a hammer but Roboty is too low to the ground to be able to do that. Instead, Roboty honks his horn and says “Human, can you please move your hammer? I’ve already had to tidy up all of your toys. Stop leaving your tools laying around!”. Hopefully this, along with all of the toilet paper obstacles, adds to our humor points!
Next, Aiden lines up Roboty with our toilet paper tower and then sets the controller down. This is where I take over using audio commands. Wearing a Bluetooth headset, I tell Roboty to “enabled collision prevention” and then say “forward”. He drives forward and then using his ultrasonic distance sensor, automatically stops when he gets too close to the toilet paper tower. I issue a few more audio commands to navigate Roboty over to a ramp and then Aiden takes over the controls again. The next part is hard – Aiden has to drive Roboty from one platform to another over two thin pieces of string!
Aiden got a Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit for the Nintendo Switch for Christmas and we thought it would be cool to incorporate that into our obstacle course. We were planning on having Roboty race against Mario and even use some camera angles from Mario’s onboard camera, through the Nintendo Switch screen. Unfortunately, this added too much time to the obstacle course, putting us well over the 5 minute limit. We decided Roboty would just have a quick chat with Mario, telling him that they’ll have to race another time.
The next section of the obstacle course is my favorite but Aiden’s least favorite because of how difficult it is! Roboty has to drive up a ramp and onto a spinning platform. Under the platform is a Raspberry Pi which turns a stepper motor to turn the platform. This Raspberry Pi also spins our cross. Aiden needs to time his exit off the spinning platform perfectly so the wheels are lined up with the thin wooden planks, which aren’t much wider than Roboty’s wheels. Before he does all of that, he needs to drive under the bridge and over to the corner of my office to get a box. The box is needed so Roboty can get from the bridge onto the down ramp. We put the box right in the corner so it’s extra hard to get out. Once he pushes the box into place, he can cross the bridge and then head down the ramp. Finally, he needs to make it through the spinning cross again and then across the Lego!
For the final section of our obstacle course, Roboty drives out the front door and down a set of switchback ramps to get down the stairs. The ramps weren’t very wide and for some reason, they were really slippery so it made it challenging to get to the bottom in one piece.
The rain delay allowed us to practice each section of the course and figure out the best and fastest way to complete it. We finally had nice weather the following weekend so we took advantage of it and recorded our video. We ran the course a few times just to see how long it would take. We also had to figure out the best places for me video record from and where Aiden should stand at each section as we navigated the course. Some of the attempts took us almost 7 minutes while other attempts ended early because Roboty didn’t make it across the string or bridge. For other tries, the audio commands didn’t work properly and then our spinning platform failed. On our last attempt, Aiden drove the course perfectly and it was extremely satisfying to finally have a clean run! It took us about three hours and 19 attempts to successfully complete the obstacle course and we did it in 4 minutes and 58 seconds! I’m excited for everyone to see the video for this one in a few weeks!
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