Programming instructions

Reference
Project Lead The Way © and Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy © / For use with VEX
®
Robotics Systems
Glossary • 8
Glossary continued
Pseudocode: is a compact and informal description of a computer programming code. It is a hybrid language which
combines the features of the programming language with the native language of the person writing the program.
RADAR: See LIDAR. An acronym standing for Radio Detection And Ranging, it is a system that uses radio waves to
detect, determine the distance and/or speed of objects. It functions by bouncing radio waves off of objects and timing how
long it takes the reected wave to come back to a receiver.
Radius: The length of the line segment that joins the center of a circle with any point on its circumference. Equal to half the
diamater of the circle.
Receiver: See Monitor, Sender. A receiver gets messages sent by the transmitter.
Request for Proposals (RFP): See Proposal. Clients sometimes issue a Request for Proposal, commonly referred to as
an RFP, on a particular subject. These RFPs are issued to nd a provider for a new product or service, one that typically
addresses a particular problem or set of problems.
Research: The process of gathering information pertaining to a subject. In a project, thorough research investigates the
nature, limits and complicating factors involved in the problem the project seeks to solve, and all previous attempts to
address it. Lack of adequate research is often a cause for a project failing to meet its goals.
Resource: Any limited good that can be drawn upon to complete a project. Projects typically are limited in money, time
and human resources, and need a plan to allocate them carefully in order to meet project goals.
Responsibility Matrix: After the project work has been divided into tasks, a responsibility matrix may be created which
assigns responsibility for these tasks to project members. A well-constructed responsibility matrix will ensure both that
no tasks necessary for successful completion of the project are left undone, and also that there is no duplication of effort
(more than one member, or team of members, working on the same task in an uncoordinated way.)
Responding Variable: See Dependent Variable.
Revise: See Iterative Development, Test/Revise/Repeat. To remake or improve based on testing and or feedback. Test/
revise/repeat is the typical project pattern. Testing reveals both what works and what doesn’t. Revision maintains what
works while trying to x what doesn’t work. Revision is done after feedback from people as well as testing.
Right Angle: A 90 degree angle.
Robot: A machine that is able to interact with and respond to its environment in an autonomous fashion. A robot is
characterized by three central capabilties: the ability to Sense, the ability to Plan, and the ability to Act. See Sense, Plan,
Act.
Rotation Sensor: A device that measures the amount of rotation of a certain piece or object.
Rubric: A method and tool for evaluation, consisting of a chart of criteria for evaluation of work. It allows for standardized
evaluation according to specied criteria, making evaluation more transparent.
Scatterplot: Used to illustrate the relationship between two aspects of the same set of data. One aspect is represented by
the X coordinate (horizontal location) and the other is represented by the Y coordinate (vertical location) of the data point
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