Questions by Artist on VEX Programing

[jcsymmes]

I am new to vex, and i am working on a robot not for a competition but for an art gallery show i am in. The project i am working on is called Edmund the Pro Social Emu. Though its built out of bent medal and covered in wolly fabric, the flightless yet extremly engaging bird has a vex control chip and programing system inside its belly, to control a robotic movable neck. Its permenetly conected to a computer as the cable is built into its leg- as it goes about its purpose-to get people to hug it as much as possible.

The robot itself is working well, after i devoloped a good counter weight system, however i have to questions about advanced programing that you might be able to help with.

1. Randomization- When the optical sensor is activated i want the neck to move in one of a series of programed movments, that are choosen randomly by the computer. Basically i want to be able to randomly select a varriable to choose. How do you do this in Easy C.

2. Activation of video- behind the robot is a TV Screen that i want similarly to play a Short movie clip(the clips say Variations of "please hug me, i am a very huggable emu"). How do you get either easy C to do this, or get it to activate a seperate program to do this.

These are my two main questions. In addition i have worked limit switchs and maybe a bumper switch to be inside the fury body. When ever they are activated the robot assumes its beng hugged, and plays a video that says "Thank you, nice person". This i have pretty well handled.

Thanks in advance for any help, for a person who hasn't seriously programed since high school. VEX i think has a lot of potential for artistic uses, one that after this robot is done i hope to explore more.


Scott Hillman



PS After this show i am thinking of entering it into a battle bot competition to try really diffrent tactics with other robots. They never expect a robot that just wants to cuddle.