Robot Limitations & API Limitations

First, it should be noted that the Robot, at best, is a blunt instrument that has extremely finicky tendencies. Some of the problems encountered in development with the robot were its constant snagging of wire covers causing the robot’s motors to stall and its localization (guidance system) to become inaccurate.

Second, a great deal of the system’s original API (ARIA) is an open source code. While this does have some positive implications as far as development goes, there is little or no reason for the original manufacturer (ActivMedia Robotics) to update or maintain the ARIA API. The latest version of this has been absorbed into their commercial proprietary API; however, it is not available for free. Also, it contains bugs and errors, and new versions are being released at a dizzying rate. (Three separate builds this year alone were made available to consumers.)

Third, Saphira API is closed source. This posed a problem when it came to dealing with and fully understanding this code. We would have liked to modify the code to use Saphira’s API functions for gradient path finding, but couldn’t due to the code not being open.