Mission Instructions

Your mission is to create a robot that can explore remote, narrow canyons. First, you will create a sample canyon system with both a left and right turn. Then you will design, test, and refine your robot until it can navigate the canyon system independently.

11. Extensions

Extension: Build a bigger canyon system

Once you’ve had your robot solve the simple canyon system, go ahead and build a bigger one! There are all sorts of ways to make a canyonland bigger: simply add more corners or add a dead end. Try your code again.

Does your algorithm need tweaking? Most likely it does. That’s the point! Keep going!

Extension: canyon system are natural

Of course, canyon system in nature rarely have perfect right angles, and each corridor is rarely the same size as the others.  If you want a real challenge, try changing only one of those things in your canyonland. How does your program need to change to become more flexible in a “natural” canyonland?

Extension for Groups

Try setting your robot in another canyon that somebody else created. This could be a different group in your class, or it could be a canyon that a parent or sibling creates just for you! By having someone else build the canyon, it will give you a better sense of how your robot would behave “in the wild”. 

Were you successful? Then it is time to race your robots! See which robot is most efficient at exploring a canyon. You could also get points for exploring more of a canyon if the robot programs are really different!