Our Script

Hi! We are the Mindstorm Maniacs!

We are: Bat, Jared, Brice, Matt, and Maya

 We researched while trying to get a transportation problem.  A lot of our research is on what would help kids.  For example, we researched heely and bike safety.  We researched cars because they could crash into kids, and also because kids ride in cars.  This gave us our problem: The high number of fatal car crashes.  We got a solution that increases car safety.

After thinking of some possible solutions, we came up with one that uses ultrasonic sensors, which use sound but the levels can’t be heard.  We chose these sensors because they can measure distance, so you can also measure speed of another object relative to the sensor, and also, because it seemed like a simple solution.

Volvo has some cars that have a system to stop low-velocity crashes.  We visited a dealership (Demontrond Volvo) for a demonstration.  Apparently, Volvo’s City Safety Crash Avoidance System can stop about 50% of all rear-ending crashes and uses cameras and radar. This is similar to our solution, except radar uses microwaves rather than sound. 

We contacted an expert on robotics, Dr. Sandor Szabo from NIST.  We asked him some questions on sensors.  He said that some other crash avoidance systems use ultrasonic sensors for backing up.  Avoiding collisions generally reduces the number of all crashes, so it probably reduces the number of fatal car crashes per year.  Technology can be used to help avoid crashes.

To tell people about what we learned, we have a blog, mindstormmaniacs.blogspot.com.  Our project, a video, is on Youtube and our blog.  We also have links to all of our research on our blog.  Our blog has been visited more than a thousand times. 

Competition

The big day is coming up, and we are freaking out! The Comp. is on Saturday. We have only two more practices until the Comp. We think that everything is coming together now. Recently we visited the Demontrond Volvo dealership to learn more about the City Safety System. We got to take a test drive in the City Safe Cars, and one of the men there, Mr. Trentini, kindly ran it into a few barriers for us, with us in it! It didn't even touch them, and Mr. Trentini didn't even touch the steering wheel. We also learned of more technology built into the new cars, like a camera in the back for reversing. The image form the camera is showed on a screen in the car, and it shows yellow lines on the road, showing where your tires will go. This helps to keep the guesswork out of reversing. Also some models have cameras on the rearview mirrors to eliminate blind spots.

This is a post from Your Mom! (like my signature?)
See Spot. See Spot run.
C4. C4 RUN!!!

Bike Safety

When riding a bike, always wear a helmet. Make sure that you are always paying attention to cars and other things around you, because even if you are a good rider,  there are still other people around you that may not be as attentive as you. Make sure that you do not ride too fast near cars, parked or moving, because a parked car's door may open if someone is getting out and you don't want to run into them, or the car door! Never allow yourself to be "towed" behind a car, or any other motorized vehicle. Also, never ride into a street or path without looking first. Lastly, stay away from obstacles. Bike+Tree+Speed, you do the math!

See Spot. See Spot run.
C4. C4 RUN!!!!

Hello, Adventurer!

Our Tournament is coming soon!  It will be hard, but it is the only one that does not offer invitations to nationals.  We should be able to get... what?  The date is February 27, 2 days until april fools day... I mean March fool's day.

This is a post from Alpha Rex.

The NXT wires are like telephone jacks, except for one difference: the snap connecter on top is to one side, not in the middle, to keep kids from plugging their robots into the telephone line.

Brrrriiiiiiiiinnnnnngggg!Brrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnngggggg!

Person: Hello?

NXT:Hello.

Person: Who is this?

NXT:Alpha Rex.

Person: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ALIEN ROBOTS ARE INVADING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NXT: Resistance is Futile.

Talking to an Expert

Our team recently talked to a robotics scientist about new cars using sensors. We asked him a few questions:

Q. What sensors do the use?
A. They use Radar for forward collision and vision for lane departure.

Q. Do they use ultrasonic sensors specifically?
A. Ultrasonic sensors are used for backup incase the Radar fails.

Q. What is the hardest problem in designing them?
A. Each sensor has different problems, Radar has problems when determining wether an object is in-path or out-of-path (you don't want to warn the driver that he's passing by mailbox on the road side). Vision has problems locating poorly marked lane stripes.

Q. What weather conditions can cause problems? (For example, it could think that you are about to crash into a group of snowflakes, so it would stop.)
A. Radar works pretty well in bad weather. Vision systems have problems with direct sunlight, oncoming headlights, reflective road surfaces, and other things of that nature.

Q. What is the range for ultrasonic sensors?
A. He is not exactly sure, he would guess ultrasonic sensors for backup would typically be 0-3m.

Q. What are the limitations for ultrasonic sensors?
A. One limitation is that an object can appear invisible if it's surface angle with respect to the sensor direction gets large. The acceptance angle of the detector is called it's field of view (FOV). If the object's surface exceeds half the FOV then there may not be enough energy captured.

For more information on sensors click HERE.