PHASE II - Software

Over the last 48 hours I have begun programming the main software. The manual control software was written to test the robot and remains in beta stage with some tweaks required to make it work properly.

 The main focus now has been the mapping software. It was my original intention to split the software into mapping and location. It has become quickly apparent that both will be done at the same time as the mapping side requires route searching to find unmapped areas.
Instead of using an array to store data I have taken what I learnt in server-side programming and decided to use MySQL. On the server side of the software I decided to go with easyphp as this installs MySQL and Apache with everything needed to make the two work together and provide the MySQL web interface. This will make database maintenance much easier and save lots of time when compared to a command line interface. My code so far has consisted of opening the database and making sure the table is populated. I have also drawn a grid on the screen to represent the robots surroundings. To connect to a SQL database I had to download the MySQL .NET connector to allow VB to talk to the SQL database.
If the program has to generate the database I added a dialog box with progress bar as it can take some time to complete.

After talking to Velleman via their forums I have also got a DLL for the k8055 USB board which emulates the connection to the board meaning I can do some testing without having to upload to the robot.