Sunday 9 June 2013

Overview of Sumobot Simulator 2013 v1.0!

 

Sumobot Simulator 2013

Main Screen of Sumobot Simulator 2013.


Once Sumobot Simulator 2013 is launched, the user is presented with the Main Screen, which allows for the user to select various options in designing their robot:
-The Menu Bar allows for the user to start a new sumobot design, open or save an existing sumobot configuration, as well as switch to the Mechanical, Electrical and Simulation windows. You can also do this through the Tab Panel, as seen in the image above.
-The Info Panel displays the current properties of the sumobot (such as its mass and the voltage of the motor), as set in the other Tabs.
-The Main Panel is the workspace where the user will be entering most of the values and specifications for their robot.

Mechanical Tab



The Mechanical Tab is where users can set some of the main physical properties of their robot, such as its mass, the diameter of its wheels and the coefficent of friction of the surface which the sumobot will be driven across. The corresponding changes will be visible in the Simulation Tab.

Electrical Tab


 
In the Electrical Tab, the user can set many of the internal specifications of the robot, such as the motor voltage, current, speed and diameter of the drive shaft. Furthermore, a power supply (voltage, current) can be selected, as well as the wire length, resistivity and area outlined.
 
The user can additionally switch between a series or parallel circuit configuration for the motors using the Circuit button found in the top-right corner of the screen.
 

Simulation Tab

 
 
The Simulation Tab is where the real fun begins! Here, the user can have their completed sumobot run across a virtual surface (which can be changed using the coefficent of friction), with the Distance, Velocity and Accleration graphs of the robot  displayed in real-time as the robot moves.
Once the user is satisfied with the properties of their sumobot, they can simply click the Simulation button to get their robot going!

Good luck in the ring!
 
 -The Codebusters Team
 

Thursday 6 June 2013

And time!

We are finally officially done our project.  After several hundred (maybe even thousands) lines of code the Sumo Bot Simulator 2013 has reached 1.0 status.  To celebrate our wonderful achievement here is a link to our dropbox where you can download our program:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/i7ink6qvkzwsw0g/6KzwVzYhIZ/Build%20Version

So long and thanks for all the sumo,
- code buster team

Monday 3 June 2013

O_O.. Hold the Commentary!

Our client, as of today has been updated with an acceptable version of the sumobots client. In preparation for our presentation much of the code in our program lacks programmers comments. We will continue to add more information in the comments for interested onlookers to fully understand the code.

As for the issue of running the program on the school computers, we will no longer continue to make it accessible within the school as too much information regarding the school's network and why the application refuses to run on these computers is not available at this time. The application however is fully functional for home use and will be available to students via Mr. Song's Dropbox.

Another important topic that came up in today's group meeting was the idea that much of the lwjgl library and the other libraries used by our program are incorporated into the entire file itself when much of the functions are not being used and simply take up much more space. The file size can be reduced by removing the unnecessary components of these libraries just to improve efficency, the size of the download and download time.
Through expermentation and testing we have discovered that on standard computers the program tends to recieve a lag delay as the program itself runs by constantly updating. This real time element is noted to be extremely resource intensive and we feel the need to address the issue if there is still time available. The solution is simply to integrate event handling into our code and is assumed to require a bit of time to fully update the entirety of the project. Despite the issues with few seconds of delay it the program still runs and has entered a promising final stage. Updates in terms of the lag/delay fixes may or may not be implemented with the release of Sumo Bot Simulator Version 1.0.0.0 but will be integrated in future releases if the group continues to procede with updating the project.

Thank You!
~ Code Busters Team!