Python Coding Guide for Robot Control

Welcome to the Python Coding Guide for controlling your robot in the Smart Home Robotics Competition simulation environment. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the process of setting up your Python script to control your robot’s movements effectively.

Adding Required Libraries

Before we dive into coding, let’s start by importing the necessary libraries:

from controller import Robot, DistanceSensor, Motor, PositionSensor

These libraries provide the essential functions and components needed to interact with the robot’s sensors and actuators.

Initializing the Robot

Next, let’s initialize the robot and set up some parameters:

robot = Robot() # Create robot object timeStep = int(robot.getBasicTimeStep()) maxSpeed = 6.28

Here, we create a Robot object and retrieve the basic time step. We also define the maximum speed for our robot.

Adding Motors

Now, let’s add the motors to control the robot’s wheels:

wheel_left = robot.getDevice("wheel1 motor") wheel_left.setPosition(float('inf')) wheel_right = robot.getDevice("wheel2 motor") wheel_right.setPosition(float('inf'))

We retrieve the motor devices and set their position to infinity, allowing them to rotate freely.

Creating a Movement Function

To control the robot’s movement, we’ll define a simple function:

pythonCopy code

def move(left, right): wheel_right.setVelocity(right * maxSpeed / 10) wheel_left.setVelocity(left * maxSpeed / 10)

This function takes two parameters: left and right, representing the desired velocity of the left and right wheels, respectively. We calculate the velocity based on the maximum speed and set the wheel velocities accordingly.

Controlling the Robot

Now that we have our move function, we can easily control the robot’s movement:

while robot.step(timeStep) != -1:
 move(10, 10) # Forward with maximum speed move(-5, -5) # Backward with half speed move(5, -5) # Turn

By calling the move function with appropriate parameters, we can make the robot move forward, backward, or turn as desired.

Conclusion

With these simple steps, you can now start coding in Python to control your robot in the simulation environment. Experiment with different movements and strategies to optimize your robot’s performance and excel in the Smart Home Robotics Competition.

Happy coding!