To all the robot experts out there....?

Question

Whats the difference between a 'Cartesian' and 'Polar', how do they work...which is better?

Answer 1

Cartesian co-ordinates are given by two points on the x and y axis (in 2D), like a map grid reference or the points on a graph.

Polar co-ordinates are given as an angle and a distance from an origin point. e.g. 45 degress 2m

There used to be a simple robotic programming language used in schools in the 1980s to teach basic robotics called logo which used a polar co-ordinate system.

You specified an angle and distance and the little robot (Called a turtle) went off in that direction. The turtle had a pen and you could use the pen to draw lines along your path it followed using the commands. The aim of exercises used to be to write programs that would draw geometric shapes.