LEGO Robotics - Spring 2014: Mid Session Progress

We are over half way through our spring session of LEGO Robotics here at The Bakken Museum. We have two classes of students working hard on some interesting robotics projects. We wanted to share what we have been up to during these last few weeks and what we have coming up in the remaining time.

Introduction to LEGO Robotics - Morning Workshop

In our introductory class, we have learning the basics of robot design, construction, and programming. In the first week of class we began building the basic robot that we have come to love here at the museum. Each robot is assembled by a team of two students. One student assembles as the other collects pieces and then they switch roles until the have a fully functional robot. The students have done a great job helping each other out when they get stuck or need some help. By the end of the first day, pretty much everyone had a working robot.

On the second day we focused our attention on how to make our basic robot move around. We were utilizing the on-robot programming. This allows us to give the robot five instructions to respond to. We rotated through six challenge stations to help us practice computational thinking. Some of these stations included driving in a square, going exactly six feet and stopping, and going over a ramp. The second half of the day was spent investigating and experimenting with sensors. The NXT robots we use has four different sensors, each can be used to gather more information about the surroundings. We used those sensor to make the robots interact with the sounds, lights, and objects in our environment.

We learned that there are some limitations to what we can do with the programming style we practiced last week, so this week we learned to use the computer as a programming tool. This gives us a more power and flexibility to control the robot. To start off we focused on making the robot move along a specific path, a maze. The goal was to give the robot instructions to move through the maze from the starting line to the finish line with no human interaction. It was a tricky maze with many turns. Few students finished the whole things, but everyone made a good effort and made good progress during our workshop. It was a good reminder that just because it’s simple doesn't mean it easy.

Our fourth week started out with some circuit exploration. We used batteries, bulbs, and wires to make some interesting circuits. There was a wide range of skills in our group. It was great to see students sharing knowledge with their fellow students. Next, we brainstormed how we could make our robots interact with circuits. The rest of the day was spent working on special challenges designed by the students to be revealed at our Big Show on Saturday May 17th at 11:30. These challenges will be what we focus on for the rest of the session. I hope you will join us to see what these creative robot engineers are working on so diligently.