five science one '05: May 2006

Hello...Xing Ji's back with itchy fingers and a new blog entry

Right now I'm feeling all happy because there's one more week till the holidays and just two more weeks till i'll be back in Msia...woohoo....i've been skipping school pretty much the last week...so I don't really look forward to going back this week...should i ponteng the whole thing away?

Actually, it wasn't really my fault to skip almost the whole week of school...serious...(ya rite)...Ok la, on monday i went to JC t 11.35 am, because i was slightly sick and sleepy in the morning, and 3 periods of KI plus 2 periods of maths lectures concerning functions isn't a great way to wake you up....on Tuesday i woke up early wishing i could skip school again...be carful what you wish for...it might just come true....my hopes were fulfilled in the most painful manner ever...I knew I was sick...I just didn't know how bad...that morning...i learnt the meaning of pure unadulterated excruciating suffering...just as i was about to (grudgingly) get into my uniform, I keeled over from a sharp pain in the solar plexus region...TUMMYACHE!! I ran to the toilet and ARRRGH....sat that for eternity(it seemed like it) screaming...my roommate was horrified...but I asked him to leave anyway...diarrhoea i assure you, is not something to be trifled with...i could barely satnd after that and my face was white...I staggered back to my bed and collapsed exhausted....well, at least I didn't have to go to school now....for lessons at any rate...(later on at 3 i returned to work on my robot...my classmates all saw me playing with it at the koi pond, apparently fit and healthy and disbelieved my spectacular morning sickness story...they just thought i was plain lazy...which i probably am)

Wednesday...today was the photo shoot and the registration for the underwater robot competition( URC) ...we had a briefing in which the organisers told us that they had set aside 600 sing dollars for any team which was able to produce an autonomous robot...so long as the robot managed to get 10 pts....now..to tell you the truth, our remote controlled robot was crap...somehow..the thing kept on crashing when we pressed any buttons...so when we confirmed with the organisrs that we would be able to get 600 bucks even if we finsihed last...so long as it was autonomous...a devious plan started to formulate within our devious minds..

Since we had nothing to lose and everything to gain...we decided to hard code our robot to move in the general direction of the tank by timing how long it takes to run a particular diretion and then programming it to do so...based on timing...the competition rules stated that every time we banged the sides or surfaced or touched the bottom...5 pts would be deducted, with a cap of 20 for vertical and horizontal banging respectively...thus..our robot would effectively have lost 40 pts...each team starts with 40 pts and completing all the tasks(moving along an L-shaped tank..picking up a cargo and then returning the cargo to the starting line) would net you 60 pts...meaning total amount of pts one would be able to acquire is 100 pts...the way we worked our baby...we would be getting 60 pts...however... we would be able to grab 600 bucks...becasuse effectively...our robot was now autonomous...ie...does not require a remote control

Truth be told...a real autonomous robot requires sensors and stuff and complex programming...the programming we did for our so alled auto bot was far simpler than the code required even for the remote control bots...we simply had to on and off the corresponding motors for a certain amount of time each...unfortunately...this being an inaugural competition..the orgnisers were quite lax about their definition of an autonomous robot...thus we were able to compete becasue of this loophole...what we did may be criticized as unethical by some but most importantly...it was legal....and it netted us an extra 300 bucks on the competition date( another team built an autonomous bot as well...a real one...unfortunately ...theirs couldn't run properly but the money was still split as they managed to collect 10 pts...dang)

Our ahem...slightly unconventional method did lead to some embarrasing moments though..the competition was held at a underwater technology fair called Oceans with delegates from all over the world such as Japan, France and the US.. One Japanese delegate was most impressed with our autonomous robot and asked me how it was that the robot could sense the walls and stuff like that...eeps...i saw my friend standing nearby and muttered that HE was the one who did the programming so the Japanese shuffled off to hunt my friend down instead...the last I heard was him crapping that we had programmed the robot to do certain stuff under certain probabilities and more such bullshit...he then said we didn't use sensors to do the job...because the man was most interseted as to where our sensors were...I think the Japanese was more confused than anything...but the important thing was...he was actually impressed...!

Oddly enough, the other teams who tried to manouver their RC robot most carefully inadvertently bumped into the sides as well because the tank was very narrow(40 x40 x40)...because pts take precedence over timing...everyone was aiming for 100...but ended up being very slow instead...our robot which disregarded banging( we had decided to forego that part) managed to end up a respectable 4th because many teams ended up only getting 60 pts as well but our timing was far better than theirs....as an added bonus...we even got invited to a fancy gala dinner for the prize giving ceremony that was held more for the benefit of the delegates....nicest food i've had since coming to singapore...we tried to order wine but couldn't because we were in uniform so we had to settle for coke instead...

Right now...I'm trying to hunt for more David Eddings books...i finished the Tamuli trilogy over the last week while attending the competition...i guess i should become a library memebr but I'm cheap so i'll probably just sit there and read my way through...

Btw, here's an interesting article that opens up a whole lot of food for thought...makes you wonder how safe smartcards really are... http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.05/rfid.html?pg=1&topic=rfid&topic_set=