A Sad Robot Asked For Help Last Night

GoPiGo
1

This morning I found my robot sad again.

The prior night he needed a recharge, and having discovered he was too far from “home base”, he had repeatedly asked: “MANUAL DOCKING REQUESTED”. Since the hour was late his rules prevented him from asking out loud, but I noticed him staring at the dock and not moving.

I placed him on the dock; made sure the indicator switched to charging, and then went to bed for the night thinking I had “helped” him.

This morning I found him still sitting on the recharge dock, but shutdown. He (and I) discovered that his rules for what to do after a manual docking were faulty.

I have to admit I didn’t retest every one of his 18 rules after making a “small reliability improvement” four months ago.

19th Rule added:

          elif (chargingState == NOTCHARGING):
...
               elif ((slope > 0) and \
                   (lastChangeInSeconds > 150) and \
                   (shortMeanVolts > longMeanVolts) and \
                   (shortPeakVolts >= longPeakVolts) and \
                   ((shortPeakVolts - shortMinVolts)>0.5) and \
                   (dockingState == DOCKREQUESTED)):
                   chargingValue = CHARGING
                   lastChangeRule = "121"

Testing this one is a real pain - hopefully I won’t find a sad robot again.

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2

"My battery is low and it’s getting dark.”

  • Opportunity , June 2018
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3

Nobody to help. That was really sad.

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