Robotics Fundamentals - Summer Session

Teacher:  Chad Collester

Grades: 7th grade and up

Meets:  Friday 2:00 - 4:00;  May 23 - July 11  Class will actually run and hour and a half with 30 minute clean up time at the end of each class

Class Description: Chad Collester, husband to our own Terri Collester, has a passion for robotics!  He is going to offer an eight session Robotics Fundamental class.

What will it cover?
I. Your Boe-Bot’s Brain

  1. Setting up the hardware and testing the system
  2. Your first program
  3. Looking up answers

II. Your Boe-Bot’s Servo Motors—Introducing the Continuous Rotation Servo

  1. how to track time and repeat actions
  2. tracking time and repeating actions with a circuit
  3. centering the servos
  4. testing the servos

III. Assemble and test your Boe-Bot

  1. Assembling the Boe-Bot
  2. Re-Test the Servos
  3. Start/Reset Indicator Circuit and program
  4. Testing speed control with the debug terminal

IV. Boe-Bot Navigation

  1. Basic Boe-Bot Maneuvers
  2. tuning the basic maneuvers
  3. calculating distances
  4. maneuvers—ramping
  5. simplify navigation with subroutines

V. Tactile Navigation with Whiskers

  1. Tactile Navigation
  2. building and testing the whiskers
  3. field testing the whiskers
  4. navigation with whiskers
  5. artificial intelligence and deciding when you are stuck

VI. Light Sensitive Navigation with Photoresistors

  1. Introducing the Photoresistor
  2. building and testing Photoresistor circuits
  3. roam and avoid shadows like objects
  4. a more responsive shadow controlled Boe-Bot
  5. getting more information from your Photoresistors
  6. flashlight beam following Boe-Bot
  7. roaming toward the light

VII. Navigating the Infrared Headlights

  1. using infrared headlights to see the road
  2. building and testing the IR pairs
  3. field testing for object detection and infrared interference
  4. infrared detection range adjustments
  5. object detection and avoidance
  6. high performance IR navigation
  7. the drop-off detector

VIII. Robot Control with Distance Detection

  1. Determining distance with the same IR LED/Detector Circuit
  2. testing the frequency sweep
  3. Boe-Bot shadow vehicle
  4. following the stripe

IX. Boe-Bot Navigation Contests

  1. Compete against other Boe-Bot’s

X. More fun and games

1. Start a THEO Robot club?

The Boe-Bot robot is built on a high quality brushed aluminum chassis that provides a sturdy platform for the servo motors and printed circuit board.  Mounting holes and slots may be sued to add custom robotic equipment. The rear wheel is a drilled polyethylene ball held in place with a small cotter pin. Wheels are machined to fit precisely on the servo spline and held in place with a small screw.

The Boe-Bot’s flexibility stems from the fact that it’s a rolling Board of Education carrier board. All I/O projects are built on the breadboard. The Board of Education programming board (and BS2-IC) may be removed to be used as your platform for the other projects in the Stamps in Class series.  The robot may be programmed to follow a line, follow light or roam autonomously while avoiding objects by completing the activities in the Robotics with the Boe-Bot text.

Once you’ve mastered the basics, you can keep experimenting and expanding your Boe-Bot robot’s capabilities. 

Prerequisites: None

Maximum number of students: 15

Homework:

Cost:  Cost is $200

Please note:  Please anticipate at least three students per robot. 

Supplies that the students should bring to class: 

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Robotics