Wumpus World 

Saggy Boi went through a lot of changes as the team were trying to build him. In the beginning, we were very adamant about having a long and stable base since we needed a place to rest the brick upon. We quickly realized that one could not have a long base that was at the same stable. We originally wanted tracks as well instead of wheels since we thought tracks would make moving easier. That idea was later modified since tracks are harder to program to turn than wheels. One crucial part of Saggy Boi that remained constant throughout the entire project was his back marble. We decided to not change that marble since in the beginning, it seemed to be necessary for stability and balance. Our team later realized that the marble could be used as a point from which one could turn and pivot on.

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For a few weeks, Saggy Boi was comprised of a tricycle-like design with two giant front wheels and a marble in the back. The light sensors were kept in the front between the two wheels. However, we ran into two major back issues. One issue was that the marble kept on falling out of the back due to the poor structural design. This problem was due to the fact that the marble and all it’s 15 or so attached Lego pieces were connected to the robot by only two vertical rods. This lack of stability gave the robot the impression that it was “sagging” toward the floor, hence the name Saggy Boi. Although Saggy Boi was still able to move with this issue, it was fixed last minute before the performance by widening the structure by which the marble was connected to the robot. Also, the marble was now connected by not two, but four Lego rods to ensure complete stability. Second issue we ran into was having the two output wires drag on the floor when Saggy Boi was moving. This issue was fixed by sticking two long sticks through the front and looping the wires through the sticks. These two sticks allowed Saggy Boi to complete 100% 90 degree turns, and not 70-120 degree turns as he usually did when the wires were touching the floor and creating unnecessary friction. Later, the two sticks were replaced with a structure that held the sensors in front of the wheels and not in between them in order to reduce the clunkiness impression. This allowed the wires to protrude upward and not be bent, since the bent design would put a lot of stress on the wires and potentially rip them away from the robot.

Final robot structure was a wide back with 4 Lego pieces attaching marble to Saggy Boi and a relatively wide front with sensors in front of wheels with little stress on the wires as they loosely point up. Base is relatively short compared to overall length of robot, but is very stable and comprised of as few Lego pieces as possible. Also, Saggy Boi has wings on his sides. They don't interfere with his movement or stability, and he really likes them since he claims they make him look cool.