Thursday, May 3, 2012

At least there is progress

After some discussions with my supervisor, we concluded that the best way to approach my robotics thesis was to first of all: Ignore my robots entirely.

Although this is sad, because all I really want to do all day is play with robots, I found a fair amount of relief. I am still on my way of learning about how robots work. The basic movement, tracking, identification stuff is new and fresh and still rather untouched. Before I even get to developing a new algorithm for them, I thought I would have to go through the painstaking process of learning all the basic robotic stuff in detail. My issue with doing it this way, was that I felt that I may be wasting time, learning certain aspects about robotics that I didn't really need to know.

So my supervisor decided I should do it the other way around. Instead of starting with learning the back end of the robotics side, I should start working on the algorithm, in an ultra theoretical space - a 2D grid world. Model everything in the ultra simple 2D grid world, then take it down to robot simulation world, and then down to real robot world.

So I have been working on some ant cemetery algorithms in abstract world and they are kinda working to some degree. They still need some work certainly and although the world may be abstract, progress has become significantly more tangible. All I need to do now, is add the division of labour. Great.

I went to Ballito over the long weekend, which was a nice break. I unfortunately got ill on the way down there and so I am struggling to get back into the flow of things. I stress a little when I think how much time I am loosing. I need to just get on with it and function.

Next week I need to have division of labour. Something, anything - as long as it kinda works. Progress is required.