Adjustable Program Parameters


Under the Tools menu you will find the Parameters menu item. Clicking on this menu item (or pressing Alt-P) brings up the Adjustable Parameters dialog window. Within this window you can adjust four different program variables - distance sensor sensitivity, light sensor sensitivity, and speed dampening by adjusting the appropriate slider bar. To view the slider for a variable,click on the tags at the top of the window.


Adustable Parameters Window


Distance sensitivity panel.

Distance - in our experience with the Khepera robot, we have found that no two robots exhibit identical sensor readings at a given distance from an object - even under identical situations. Sensors may get damaged or degrade over time, which may effect their sensitivity (by sensitivity I mean that one set of sensors may return higher values (on average) than another set when at an equal distance from a sensed object. I call the set returning the higher values more sensitive). Given this observation, I felt that it would be appropriate to add a level of flexability to the sensor simulations, rather than hard code the values used to determine distance sensor readings. If you use a real Khepera robot in conjunction with the simulator, you may need to adjust these parameters if significant differences are found when calibrating. Sliding the bar on this panel will increase or decrease sensitivity.
Light - sensor readings from light sources can variate because of sensor idiocyncracies (as noted above), or because of variations in the light source itself. The latter form of variation is the main reason for providing variable adjustments to light sensing. In real environments, the actual Khepera robot may be presented with light sources that may generate a wide range of energy based on battery power, bulb type, etc. By adjusting this parameter, you can indirectly alter the type of light used in simulation - to better reflect the properties of those used in real Khepera testing.
Speed - speed parameters were made variable to account for the differences in speeds between the machines the simulator may be run on. Given a motor speed of 2 assigned to each motor, for example, one might notice the robot traveling at speeds proportional to 4 or 5 when on a fast machine, while on a slow machine the robot may be traveling at speeds proportional to 1 or less. Provided you have access to a real Khepera robot, you can adjust the speed parameters to roughly emulate the distance covered by the real robot at given speeds. The slider bar for this panel modifies several variables that determine turn and non-turn speeds, so all movement is kept proportional.

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