[Dprglist] Idea - Line following practice courses

Mon Nov 19 15:51:25 PST 2018

 I had this course printed at  98% scale with coordinate borders removed, to save about $20 and get it to fit in my office.The 98% scale makes sure none of the tile borders are cut off in 8x6 banner.Total Cost about $70

Thanks Carl

-----Original Message-----
From: Carl Ott via DPRGlist <dprglist at lists.dprg.org>
To: clay-timmons <clay-timmons at outlook.com>
Cc: DPRG D-List <dprglist at dprg.org>
Sent: Mon, Nov 19, 2018 1:44 pm
Subject: Re: [Dprglist] Idea - Line following practice courses

Clay & others 'on the line'...
Nice find at FedEx - would be cool to compare prices..
Note that source files for club courses, as well as instructions we used to print can be found in our GitHub repo:

https://github.com/dprg/Contests/tree/master/Line%20Following

In terms of creating smaller sample courses.  I like Power Point, but then you'd need to recreate each of the core elements.
If you start with the GitHub repo, you can easily manipulate the SVG source files using Inkscape. The club course files already have versions of all the key elements already snapped to a grid.  That makes it relatively easy to copy / paste and rotate as you wish.  Plus, Inkscape makes it easy to export in whatever ppi and format that you need.
Another alternative is the course creator tool that Ron Grant started in Processing.  It's very cool and quite usable. 
For a small version of the challenge course, I've attached source file and a proof for the 7x9 version I made and use at my house.

Alternatively, feel free to use the attached 'airplane friendly' version.  It takes just $42 to print via stickers & banners, then you have to cut one strip in two.  At that point, you have a course with all the key elements of the challenge course, but in a form factor that fit's into a 2 foot roll, which easily fits in a checked luggage bag...  And, as the course is already in strips, you can overlay the strips to combine elements and explore 'corner' cases...

I won't make it to RBNO this week, but look forward to catching up after Thanksgiving...
- Enjoy!Carl

On Mon, Nov 19, 2018 at 11:49 AM Clay Timmons via DPRGlist <dprglist at lists.dprg.org> wrote:

 I was at FedEx dropping off a package and I noticed they have a large format printer.     Aha!  An idea popped into my brain.   Print a small scale test course on the wide paper.   The prices are very reasonable.  I’ve been working on the line following courses and have tried a couple options for testing at home.    First I make some test courses out of white posterboard and black electrical tape.    I found that electrical tape is difficult to get to nice 6” radius curve and it is very shiny and can easily have bright glare from reflected background lights.    I also borrowed the official club course.    While this is the best for testing it had  a couple drawbacks.   The challenge course is very large and fun to fit that  large cardboard tube into my tiny car.  I also only had one place in my house where I could get the 7’x13’ course on a wood floor.   FedEx, Staples,  Office Depot all  offer  “blueprints” /  “architectural” prints in color or black and white in standard sizes including 24”x26” and 36” x 48”.    Here are some links. Staples             https://www.staples.com/sbd/content/copyandprint/engineering-prints.htmlOffice Depot  https://www.officedepot.com/configurator/pod/#/product/blueprints   I plan to design and print some test course on paper.   My idea is not to reproduce the exact DPRG course layout but to print smaller simplified versions for testing purposes.      For the beginner / novice  I’m thinking a simple oval.    If your robot can follow a straight line and a curve with the 6” radius it “should” be able to complete the DPRG course.    For the advanced course I came up with this layout which has all the “elements” of complexity as described in the DPRG line following rules.Offset,  90 degree,  Gap S,  6” Gap,  Notch.      I’m working on my idea for a simplified version of the challenge course.   The challenge course has many complexities and it will be tricky to get them all into a 36” x 48” course.   For me personally I know where my robot struggles so that is what I really want in a test course.      I just wanted to share my thoughts for any feedback.   I plan to be at RBNO tomorrow evening and would love to have some help on a working out a simplified challenge test course.I could also use some help laying out the course to get a PDF file for printing.    I used PowerPoint to cobble together my ideas but really need a drawing package like inkscape or adobe.  I have an artist friend who is a whiz with adobe and could knock this out easily but if anyone in the club can help with this let me know.  Cheers, -Clay Timmons-   _______________________________________________
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