bot building

i have been struggling with the schematics and building a bot design called the Quickly by Math Vos. the name Quickly refers to the small number of components and short amount of time that it takes to build it. i was not so quick in building it because i am so new to circuitry. Steve Durie consulted with me today and taught me a little about how to look at the circuit diagram. He encouraged me to look up the specs of the LM386 IC. we were able to make to informed guesses about the IC function. i then coupled this information with the schematic and the circuit board drawing.

this is a reversal of the drawing i made to could conceptualize the circuit more easily:

the bot was exhibiting behavior tonight consistent with the function. the bot is having trouble grabbing a good footing so i experimented with a few different materiaals added to the motor shaft. so far none of them are great. the bot was responding very well to the bright sunshine reflected into the room. i will need to find or construct a super bright light source to keep tuning the bot.