Introduction :

Mini-MindRover lets you program your own robotic car!

First, wire up the car's components to give it intelligence. Then let it go to race around the track. Can you make the top ten list?

In Mini-MindRover you wire up the components on a vehicle to define its behavior. Your goal is to create an autonomous robot vehicle to navigate the track completing 3 laps. Its a race against the clock and the high scores are saved for everyone to see!

Mini-MindRover is a miniature version of "MindRover: The Europa Project". In the full PC game of MindRover you are challenged to build and compete robots in a 3D world with over 50 components and 20 scenarios including races, battles, and sports. Find out more at the CogniToy website.

 
Overview :

Mini-MindRover is a single screen game. All the information is visible to you at all times. The layout is divided into two parts. The left side is where you wire the robot and the right is where you see it in action.

The Design Area (on the left) contains icons that represent components on the vehicle. These components are the tools you

use to program your robot.
The Overview shows you the vehicle in 3D.
The Navigation Buttons allow you to zoom in and out of the Design Area.
The Message area shows you which component is currently selected.
The Properties box shows you the properties of the selected component and allows you to change them..

 

Design Overview :

Click on a component with the left mouse button to select it. You will see a green box around it, its name in the Message area and its properties in the Properties box.
Each component icon can be moved around in the Design Area by clicking and dragging with the left mouse button.

If you want to move all the components, you can click and drag on the Design Area with the right mouse button. This will move all the components together. (Alternatively you can press Control and drag the left mouse button to do the same thing.)
To zoom in and out use the Navigation Buttons along the bottom of the Design Area.
If you ever get lost, just click on the FIT button along the bottom. This will center your components in the Design Area.

 

Track Overview:

On the right side, you will see the Track area. This is where your vehicle shows off its intelligence.

Click on Go to start the Timer. Your Car will begin the race using the logic that you wired in the Design Area.

Click on Reset at any time to bring the Car back to the beginning and reset the timer.
The name of the current track is displayed at the top in the Track Selection. You can change the track by clicking on the arrows on either side of its name.

Click on the name of the track to view the top ten scores for that particular track. The High Score will always be displayed in the bottom left corner. The elapsed Time and the Lap number are displayed in the top right corner of the screen.

 

Components :

The vehicle comes equipped with five components for you to work with. They are an Engine, Steering Wheel, two Track Sensors and a Logical AND.

Each component has its own Properties and Events. Setting the Properties of the component will determine the behavior of your vehicle when you hit GO. For instance, setting the Throttle property of the Engine will control its speed.

Some components fire Events. You can wire two components together such that the event from one component sets the property of another one. For example, the OnTrack event of a Track Sensor can set the Throttle property of the Engine. Or, the OffTrack event can set the Steering Angle property.

To set a starting property, click on the component and set the property in the Properties Box.

To change the property settings, drag the slider with your mouse, or click just to the left or right of the slider.


Engine: Contols the speed of your vehicle.
Properties: Throttle [-100 to 100]
Events: None
Set the Throttle to 0 to stop your vehicle. Set a positive value to go forward and a negative value to go backwards.

Steering Wheel : Controls the direction of your vehicle.
Properties: Angle [-45 to 45]
Events: None
Set the Angle property to the direction you want your vehicle to steer. An Angle of 0 will make the vehicle go straight. Use negative values to turn left and positive values to turn right.

Track Sensor : Used to detect the track
Properties: Range [0.0 to 5.0], Angle [-90 to 90]
Events: OnTrack, OffTrack
A Track Sensor detects if the point at the given Range and Angle from the vehicle is on the track or not. You can see where the Track Sensors are looking by the lines coming from the front of the vehicle.
When a Track Sensor detects the track, it fires an OnTrack event, and the line will turn green. When it does not detect the track it will fire an OffTrack event, and the line will turn red.

Logical AND : Used to tell you when two events are true
Properties: InputA [0 or 1], InputB [0 or 1]
Events: TurnOn, TurnOff

A Logical AND fires an event based on its inputs. If InputA and InputB are both true, it fires a TurnOn event. If either InputA or InputB are not true, it fires a TurnOff event.

 

Wires :

Wires are the last element you need to program your vehicle to make its own decisions.

You can create wires from components that have Events, to components that have Properties. To do this, simply drag from one component to another component. When you see a gray line, let go of the mouse. Once the wire is drawn, you can select it by clicking on the arrow head of the wire. You should see a green box around it.

When a wire is selected, the Properties box displays:

When <Source Component> fires <Event> set <Destination Component> <Property> to <Value>.

First choose an Event in the top selection box. The wire will fire every time this Event happens to the Source Component.
Next choose a Property in the other selection box and set the Value to what you would like it to be.
Every time the Source Component fires the selected Event, the Destination Component will change its selected Property to the Value you have chosen.

Example : Let's say we want to steer the vehicle to the left every time the Ieft Track Sensor is on the track. To do this, draw a wire from the left Track Sensor to the Steering Wheel. Set the Event in the Properties box to OnTrack. Since the Steering Wheel has only one property, Angle is already selected. Set the angular slider value to the left. That's all there is to it!

 

High Scores :

The top 10 high scores will be recorded for each track. To view the high scores, click on the name of the track in the Track Selection.

To return to your wiring, click anywhere in the Design Area.

If your vehicle makes it to the top 10, a message box will ask for your name, and you will be entered into the list.

 

Credits :

Kent Quirk, Game Design
Ike Adams, Programmer
Zach Morong, Art
Steve Maitland, Sound/Music
Cognitoy
Special thanks to:
Nat Goodspeed, Kendra Kratkiewicz, Kim Quirk, Lincoln Quirk, Morgan Quirk, Sam Adelman, Ben Hodges, Kyle Kronyak, Julian Orbanes, Erica Rosen, James Sterrett, Corinne Mahaffey, Todd Bergland.