A Diary of the Changes Made to the Troll 1-16-02 On our first day we formed our group and decided to build the robot that serves coffee. After some sketching and planning, we built the head of the troll, with a hinged mouth. Unfortunately, while the head looked cool, we couldn't as of yet figure out how to make the jaw of the troll's head move. We also started on a conveyor belt, with the intention of having the troll move the cup towards the coffee urn. 1-17-02 Today we built two gear trains modeled after the Sciborg's. There is a motor connected to each wheel, that enables the troll to turn left and right, backwards and forwards. We also got the mouth to open and close, with a bit of work. Using a red lego motor, we attached a black bar to the motor axel. This rotates underneath the tongue of the troll's head, and allows it to open and close. When the motor runs continuously, it looks like the troll is chewing. Our troll grew hair and a beard--and an earring too! 1-18-02 We added the conveyor belt to the troll's mid-section, and rebuilt the section with the wheels and the gear train in order to better support this. We also added reflection sensors to the troll's mouth. Now, when a lego person is placed in the jaw, it detects the lego man and swallows it. Yum! We also switched the rubber back wheels to metal wheels to make the driving straighter and the structure sturdier. 1-21-02 We scrapped the conveyor belt, because our robot needed an extra motor port, and we couldn't figure out the weight distribution problems. This, and the thing was just getting in the way of the coffee spout. We also built a weighted structure with a spool, gear train, and motor to pull on the handle of the coffee urn. 1-22-02 We pretty much tested programming today. We eventually got it to find the coffee urn using reflection sensors to dectect white tape on the spout. Take me Home!