Integrator variable

[MobsyaBot]

Issue by stephanemagnenat
Tuesday Jul 04, 2017 at 15:20 GMT
Originally opened as aseba-community/thymio-vpl2#100

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It might be interesting, as an alternative to, or in complement in, the FSM mode (see #51) and the enumeration variables (see #90), to support an integrator.

An integrator would be an integer variable, whose initial value and speed of change would be set in an action block, and whose value crossing a threshold could be tested in an event block. In that sense, it would be somewhat similar to the timer in VPL1, but would be more flexible. Properly implemented, it could allow interesting activities especially at the level of bio-inspired algorithms, for instance synchronised blinking like fireflies or Grey Walter's tortoises.

Here is a proposed detailed set of operations:

• Event: Crossing threshold, user-given threshold.
• Action: Setting the value and the speed of change, possibly relative.

I envision the value to wrap around, simply mapping it to an int16.

Here is an example of design: