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Step 1: Youtube Video
The Finch
is a simple robot for computer science education. Its design was the result of a
four year study at Carnegie Mellon's CREATE lab. Watch this short presentation
about the origins, features, and purpose of the Finch robot.
Step 2: Documentation
You are required to bring at least one program of your own design to test out on the Finch. To help you get started, please study the following two resources.
Hardware: Read the Finch Hardware Page and think about what programs you might want to write this week. The theme of the lab will be dance party. How might you make your Finch dance?
Software: Take a look at the Finch Python Package Description. This document summarizes what functions you can use to control your robot.
The Finch code uses an object-oriented design. You first need to create a Finch object, and then you can invoke methods to control that object.
# connect to the Finch robot (one-time setup) finch = Finch() # green light, 75% speed ahead, for 1.5 seconds finch.led(0, 255, 0) finch.wheels(0.75, 0.75) sleep(1.5)
Step 3: Code Examples
Here are several example programs available from the Finch Downloads Page. The racedriver.py file is most similar to what you will be doing in the lab.
These last two modules are used by the above examples, and you'll need them to run your own programs as well. You are not expected to understand all the details about this code, but you might look at finch.py to see how a class is defined in Python.