Robotics Playground – Obstacle Environment

This environment provides a differential drive robot within a dynamic playground to aid in the visualization of programming basic robot motion and tasks. The robot is equipped with several sensors that can be used to automate its behavior.

In this environment obstacles can be detected using ranging sensors available in the Robotics Playground library and robot motion can be controlled to maneuver around obstacles.

NOTE: Make sure to place the necessary motor blocks to interact with the actuators in the robot. The differential drive robot has one motor in each wheel.

Arena Settings

Arena Length: Length of the arena in meters

Arena Width: Width of the arena in meters

Robot Settings

Robot ID: This ID is a number used to identify the sensors attached to the robot. Set the same ID on all the sensors you wish to attach to the robot within the environment.

Distance between wheels: Distance in meters corresponding to the separation between the robot wheels.

Wheel radius: Radius of robot wheels in meters.

Color: Color of the robot body as an RGB (Red Green Blue) vector. Example [1 0 0] (Red color)

Start Position: Vector of X and Y coordinates corresponding to the start position of the robot relative to the center of the arena. Example: [0 0] (Places robot in the center of the arena.)

Obstacles

You can change the characteristics of the environment by placing up to ten rectangular obstacles within the arena. Clicking on the “Set Obstacles” button within the obstacles tab will bring an interactive map where you can place the obstacles by drawing rectangles.

Individual obstacle settings can also be modified by expanding the menus and manually entering the desired values as shown in the picture below.