Programming instructions

Reference
Project Lead The Way © and Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy © / For use with VEX
®
Robotics Systems
Glossary • 5
Glossary continued
Horticulture: Culture or growing of garden plants.
Hypothesis: An educated explanation describing the possible relationship between two or more factors. A good hypothesis
is very specic, providing detailed, useful information. A good hypothesis is also testable, meaning that experimentation
can help to show whether the hypothesis is correct or incorrect (though it cannot ever conclusively prove correctness).
Independent Variable: In an experimental setup, the variable that is set and changed in different experimental conditions
by the experimenter in order to see whether these changes cause a change in the dependent (responding) variable. Also
called the manipulated variable
Innovate: Introduce something new, usually to make an improvement.
Input: See Sensor. Something which is sent to the controller which is used in its program. An input is typically a sensor
value sent by a sensor. An input may also refer to the sensor itself.
Integration: The process of combining or accumulating, usually in a well-ordered and useful way. To integrate sensor data,
for example, would be to combine data from two or more sensors in a useful way. To integrate two parts of a robot would
be to combine them into one machine.
Internal Design Review: See Design Review, Internal.
Inventory: An inventory is the total stock available at a given place and time. To inventory means to list systematically the
items that are available in a particular place or situation, or for a particular purpose.
Irrigation: Bringing water to crops by human effort (in place of, or in addition to, water coming from rainfall or by natural
waterways). An irrigation ditch, for example, is something people dig to channel water onto cropland.
Iterative Development: See Test/Revise/Repeat. The process of repeatedly testing and making improvements to a
product before it is nalized. In this process, multiple iterations of the product are developed, each iteration being closer to
the nal product than the last.
LCD (Liquid Crystal Display): A transparent screen containing a light polarizing liquid that is controlled by electric elds to
create visible readouts on some controllers.
Light Sensor: A sensor that detects the presence of certain wavelengths of light and reports the intensity of light back
to the controller. Light Sensors have two modes: Reected Light and Ambient Light. In Reected Light mode, the Light
Sensor will shine a red light and look for the amount of that light that bounces back to it off objects in the environment. In
Ambient Light mode, the sensor will not shine the light, instead looking for light that reaches it from other sources.
Library: A collection of programs, or parts of programs, stored to help optimize the programming process. Without a library
of programs, everything a programmer does must be done from scratch. A well-ordered library, on the other hand, enables
a programmer, for example, to track a line by calling a line tracking program from a library, instead of having to place and
congure each icon needed to track a line.
LIDAR: An acronym standing for Light Detection and Ranging; or Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging. An optical remote
sensing technology which measures properties of light to nd range and/or other information of a distant target. The most
common method is to send laser pulses into the environment, and determine the distance to various objects by measuring
the amount of time they take to reect back. Other methods, like measuring the frequency of the reected light, are also
used. LIDAR is an important and widely used remote sensing and obstacle detection technology for mobile robots.
Limit Switch: A Touch Sensor used to limit the motion of a moving device like a mechanical arm. Limit switches may be
used to provide a precise beginning and end point to mechanical motion.
Go to Reference Links