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Process Overview

Each stage of the Clean Water Mission can be solved using a three-phase process. 

  1. Planning
  2. Pseudocoding
  3. Building and Testing  

Watch the video below and read the summary to learn about using this process to solve a coding challenge, like the Clean Water Mission. You can refer back to this information at any point during the challenge.

 

Phase 1: Planning

  • Review the Challenge Document as a team. Ensure everyone fully understands the goals and requirements of the challenge before brainstorming ideas. If you have questions about the challenge, ask other groups or your teacher.
  • Collaborate with your whole team to come up with a list of several thorough, innovative ideas for completing the challenge. Be sure to record them in your engineering notebook.
  • Narrow your team's list down to the top ideas.
  • Your team's planning and brainstorming will be evaluated on how well you collaborate to make a comprehensive list of creative solutions.

Sample Notebook page reads "Ideas" at the top, with a numbered list of scribbles and a sketch to indicate notes for ways to solve the challenge.

Phase 2: Pseudocoding

  • Begin by recording the high-level steps needed to solve the challenge in human-readable language.
    • These steps should become the comments in your coding project.
    • Include the types of data needed from the AI Vision Sensor that go with each step.
  • Break down your high-level steps into the individual behaviors the robot will need to perform to complete the challenge.
  • Your pseudocoding will be evaluated on how clearly it is written, how thorough it is, and how you use data from the AI Vision Sensor to complete the challenge.

Sample Notebook page with a sketch of the setup at the top and notes below. The setup shows 3 EXP tiles divided into two areas with walls. There is a red and blue buckyball on each tile of the left area. Green arrows show the path the robot should travel to move to the red buckyball and deliver it to the left area. Below the sketch reads 1. Identify the contaminated water (red buckyball), with two substeps: a. Look for the contaminated water and b. Turn to target the contaminated water.

Phase 3: Building and Testing

  • Use your pseudocode to build and test each behavior the robot needs to perform to complete the challenge.
  • Test as you go! Do not try to build the entire project at once before testing. This will make it easier to troubleshoot issues that arise.
  • Iterate on your project frequently to improve your accuracy.
    • Refine your plan and pseudocode as needed to achieve the highest possible accuracy.
  • Your team's coding and execution will be evaluated on the completion of the challenge and the use of the AI Vision Sensor.

Example code snippet from a VEXcode project to Identify the contaminated water and turn to target the contaminated water. The project takes a snapshot of redball and if the object exists, will turn to center the object using the center x data reported by the sensor.

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