We got far … (April 2024)

 

June 1, 2023 the return of Pi Wars was announced: Pi Wars 2024 - Disaster Zone

Within a week, we formed a team of some autonomous robot hobbyists hoping to be able to compete.

Why did we start this?

As described in the  first blog of this series (We want to go far ...), we discussed our goals for the journey ahead:

• have lots of fun
• have a great weekend with like-minded people in the UK
• learn new skills
• Even though no one has experience with OpenCV, it is on everyone's to-do list.
• satisfaction

So, where are we now?

Less than two weeks before the competition, we can safely say that we met (or will meet) all these goals.

We had lots of fun. Not only with all kinds of (crazy) ideas for approaching each challenge, but also testing together, seeing progress made by others in shared videos, finding solutions for issues together and regularly mocking each other.

Not only did most of us (5 out of 6) gain OpenCV skills. 

But individually skills were new or enhanced, like:

• Python.
• Having a robot with multithreaded python.
• Making molds for and casting silicone rubber 'all-terrain wheels' (for The Temple of Doom).
• Defining and managing services using Systemd.
• Getting much better understanding of installing and using servos, after the spirit (smoke) left one of those in the nerf-gun provided by another team member.

We are very satisfied that we achieved to be able to compete in every challenge at a level we can be happy about. The only sacrifice we had to make for that was to reduce our scope:

• We decided to use remote control instead of autonomous for The Zombie Apocalypse challenge to have sufficient time to finish all other challenges.
• We didn’t publish blogs as frequent as we had planned, but prioritized the challenges.

Even more satisfying is the way we were able to do this as a team. We have definitely seen the proverb ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with others.’ being valid for this journey. It is great to work with a group of team players, where everybody contributes to their possibilities, both in available time and skills.

What is still ahead?

Regarding the great weekend with like-minded people in the UK: That can’t go wrong as long as we manage to get there. We love talking robotics and admiring other people’s creations.

Although our journey can’t fail anymore, it would be of course the icing on the cake if our robot can shine in the challenges.