Summer Workshop: Robotics

Paradigm Development Center (PDC) had a three-day Robotics workshop! The workshop dates were June 21st, 22nd, and 23rd. Students engaged in the design engineering process while building and programming the Mindstorm EV3 robot.

Introduction to Robotics

Here are the lessons and activities they completed over three-days:

Day One

Day one was started with a short video on some of the specific and relevant 21st-century applications of Robotics in the United States and around the world. Students dived in by asking great questions that led Mr. Marvin into a Robotics introduction (what it is and how it is being used today). Then, they worked on trainer robots to get a better understanding of the use of specific parts such as the "brain", cables, gears, types of motors, and sensors. Then, they built a robot using EV3 Mindstorms.

Robot Parts

motors
allows the robot to move.

• electric 
• pneumatic
• liquid

gears

used to transfer motion.

sensors 
measures or detects physical properties. 

gyroscope sensor
a tool that can measure the "rate of change" or if it moves in a direction it can tell you have fast it moves in whatever direction. For example, our telephones have gyroscopes that allow us to change the direction of our screens.

push button sensor 
when the button is pressed scream all day until it is unpressed. Right now this thing can't do anything without an electrical feed going through it.

wheels 
round wheels and a spherical wheel.

microprocessor
tells the motor what to do.

The students disassembled two robots down to parts gears, shafts, tires, and cables.

Student question: How do robots know where to go? 

An Introduction To Sensors

Teacher (Mr. Marvin): "What are the two most important things you need to be able to see as a human being?".

Eyes. Your eyes are connected to your brain by an optic nerve. A robot's optic nerve is a cable that can send a signal to the robot "brain". Every robot has to have a brain. The microprocessor is the brain.

Motors and gears that have sensors can be used to control robots. If the motors do not have gears you can use pneumatics like air pressure and tubes to move the robot. After movement is accomplished, then one may ask, "How does my robot know where to go?". Just like the human body, robots need sensors (senses).

Day Two

A Programming Lesson

The students built their robots with a light sensor. Then, the students added intelligence to their robots by programming them.

Mr. Marvin walked the students through the online Mindstorms platform programming tabs. A student said, "That looks like what we did last week in Video Game Design."

Mr. Marvin covered basic programs and, briefly, covered complex programs (that use Physics and Calculus Algorithms). 

The K-Turn

Objective: Learn and program how to tell the robot what to do.

The K-turn, also known as the three-point turn is the standard method of turning a vehicle around to face the opposite direction in a limited space, using forward and reverse gears.

The students were told the objective was not to get it right the first time. The goal is to figure out what they needed to change to cause the robot to do what they wanted it to do.

Questions to ask: What does the robot need to do? How can we move the robot a specific distance?

Students performed Math calculations in order to go from the circumference to distance. Students learned and applied knowledge about the relationships of the circumference of wheels to distance traveled.

Here is a run-through test for the K-turn.

Day Three

Students performed mathematical calculations using (a-b)c to program their robot motor outcome value based on the distance to objects. 

Mathematical Relationship

(a-b)c is a relationship between things. Mr. Marvin talked with the students about variables and assisted each student through the mathematical calculations. He reminded the students, "Just like yesterday, we changed the numbers around to have the robot perform a K-turn. Today, we are performing the same operations to program the light sensor that will allow the robot to follow a black oval-shaped track".

Students built the black oval-shaped track with the understanding that they couldn't make the corners too sharp or the robot (light sensor) would have problems following it. 

Student question: Do we have to do Math all the time?

Teacher: The computer does the math, we only set up the relationship. We have to tell the computer what relationship we want to use for our numbers. For example, (a-b)c is the algorithm for speed adjustments based on distance.

Light Sensors

Mr. Marvin told the students a couple things about light sensors. He gave them a better understanding of what light sensors do. A light sensor has a light and a sensor. The light emits light and receives light. The sensor processes the percentage of light return. It knows how bright the light is and it processes the percentage of light return. With this understanding, students input their numbers into the Mindstorms programming platform.

The students performed a run-through to test the light sensors. 

On the last day, each student was given a certificate for successfully completing this workshop.