Watch your step around The Plantation these days, as your might find Photus wheeling its way around the fake wood floors.  I temporarily mounted (I used black electrical tape instead of the more permanent Duct variety) two of the four sensors that the bot will eventually have, giving it some sense of where it’s going.  There is more video of some of the first tries at autonomy here.  It is definite that we needs a sensor in the rear – right now it likes to back into things at times. 

It took a special liking to Katie, making sure to go after her feet every time around the room.  Right now, all of the sensing and locomotion is implemented with about 10 lines of code; it could be much more graceful but I really just wanted to see how fast it was and how well the sensors work.  They are a bit inconsistant, so I am going to look into averaging them over a few times to see how I can get a bit more consistancy in the data. They are also not consistant with each other – the right sensor reads 12-13 counts above the left, resulting in a lot of driving in circles on the first tries.  Overall, I think we’re off to a great start. We’ll find out tomorrow, when I take it home to meet the parents. I’m so nervous.