teaching machines

SumoSphero :: Becky Sippert, Jake Berner, Corey Schulz

December 18, 2012 by . Filed under cs491 mobile, fall 2012, postmortems.

We developed an app that can control a Sphero, using an Android device’s accelerometer, to push other Spheros outside of a circle. Our app tells the Sphero to flash red when it leaves the circle. During this time, the controls are disabled, and the Sphero is not allowed to move for 5 seconds. The app keeps track of how many times its Sphero leaves the circle.

The main issue we ran into during development had to do with accuracy of the Sphero’s location values that the app was receiving. We were unable to solve this issue effectively, our base locations get adjusted no matter what.

Due to the difficulty of controlling the Sphero, it’s hard to make two Spheros physically contact each other, let alone push each other. Maybe this would take some practice.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UNp79e_7T4&w=560&h=315]