MAZIMILLIAN SMARTACUS is a relatively simple kit robot.
It is the GrowBot model sold by Parallax.
The processor is a Basic Stamp II Module (BS2-IC) using PBASIC
as its software language.
It has a total RAM of 32 Bytes (not K-Bytes, not M-Bytes),
used for I/O pins and program variables of which 19 bytes
were used.
It also has a total of 2 K-Bytes of EEPROM for the
software program itself. The program used about 30% of that.
The
full schematic
of the bot can be seen at the
Parallax Site.
Functionally, the bot only has two bumpers for positional input,
as well as photo resistors for line detection.
It has no IR or ultra-sonic position sensors.
The software algorithm had only a couple interesting features.
The bot could be set for left or right wall follow using the
bumpers as input before going into the maze running mode.
In right wall follow mode, the bot would go forward with a small
curve to the right to keep the right bumper in periodic contact
with the right wall.
Contact with the wall would cause it to pivot slightly to the
left and then go back to moving forward with a small curve to the
right.
A counter would keep track if it went too long with out hitting
the right wall. If that occurred, it would assume that the bot
came to an opening in the maze and it would do a sharp right turn
to regain contact with the right wall. Contact with the left bumper
would NOT cause it to turn right. It would cause it to turn
a hard left to get out of the assumed dead end in the maze.
The left wall follow mode would do everything in reverse.
The bot also had a speaker that was actuated immediately before it
started a maze to play a little tune.
Lessons learned. For a simple "bump and turn" robot, the software
algorithm would have solved every maze in the May 2002 competition
(novice maze). Unfortunately it was over looked that the bot
essentially has contact with the ground at only three points,
and the wheels were aggressive enough that they could contact a
wall at an angle and start to climb it, which would tip the bot
over to its side.
