The symmetry in programed motion project was about creating symmetry and shapes through a program called StarLogo. StarLogo is a program where there are pre-programmed blocks that you can drag in onto a canvas and make an agent (object,animal, person etc,) do certain tasks through these blocks. We over the weeks have learned how to maximize our efficiency with this program and for our final product we had to use symmetry (translation, rotation, and reflection) in our program. We are trying to create a kaleidoscope image that is on a coordinate plane of our choice, in my case the lines are separated by 45 degree angles. The process I used to start out and complete my kaleidoscope was first creating my coordinate plane. I had to use separate headings like 45 degrees, 90 degrees etc in order to achieve all the lines. I would aim the agent to a certain heading and then make it go back to the origin after the line has been drawn and repeat that until the whole coordinate plane was created and the agent was back at the origin. I then had to create my first set of shapes which was a square, circle, and semi circle, which was located at the top right of my coordinate plane.
Once that was completed I had to fully complete the coordinate plane which I chose to do clockwise just to make it easier on myself since I did use an individual agent for each shape, so I wouldn't get confused. Each line had a separate rule when transferring over the line, for example when you cross over the y=x line, you do exactly what that line means. I had to switch the values and also put my agent's heading 90 degrees for it to be reflective of the other agents.
I had to continue those steps for each quadrant but the lines each had different rules to follow because they were located in each quadrant. I also had to change the heading by 90 degrees every 3rd quadrant because the rule of reflection in our kaleidoscope made me have to have it exactly the same. My finished kaleidoscope contains symmetry based on how the agents move and how it looks. The big trait that exhibits symmetry is the way they are facing because of how accurate I made every shape head, it made it very accurate lines. My kaleidoscope exhibits translation because the agents are always moving around the coordinate plane and not always staying in one area. My kaleidoscope exhibits rotation based on the circles and semi circles created and even my squares. The agents are all rotating infinitely and will not stop unless the forever block is told to stop. Reflection is exhibited all around my kaleidoscope because each shape is reflected perfectly and they all move accordingly.
My experience with this project was surprisingly good because I was able to easily learn all the content given to me. I was also able to finish all benchmarks on time with great results which usually was full credit. Challenges I had to endure were benchmark #4 and benchmark #7 not loading. The first real obstacle I had was benchmark #4 because I was having a very hard time reflecting images across the coordinate plane and I didn't find out the heading affected the reflection until the day before the benchmark was due. Benchmark #7 was very difficult to complete because every time I would save the file into the "My Documents" folder it would not open until I finally saved it to my email and it was able to save. Overall I had a good experience with this project but it wasn't one of my favorites.