How do you build a robot?
BY DIANE RONAYNE
A WINNING ROBOT can complete 13 different missions—deploy a satellite, plant a tree, move a car, collect and distribute sources of energy—all within 2:30 minutes. But how do kids in lementary school build such a robot?
It begins with a kit, body, brain …
The LEGO company sells a product called LEGO Mindstorms (www.legoeducation.com/). An early Mindstorms version is called RCX;
LEGO’s newest is NXT.
Each version includes plastic bricks, wiring, sensors, a microprocessor “brain,” and other requisites for constructing robots with various capabilities.
In FIRST LEGO League, after examining the tasks and rules—which change each year for global competitors—young teams and their adult advisors design, engineer, and assemble a robot suited to each year’s tasks. The tricky part is that each robot must complete all tasks autonomously.
When the clock starts and a robot leaves home, teams lose points if anyone touches it. For robots to complete tasks, teams write programs using soft- ware developed especially for young children at the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Academy (www.education.rec.ri.cmu.edu/).
Programs tell robots what to do, how, and when to do it.
Drag-and-drop graphics
In a nod to programmers’ youth, instead of numerical code the software provides drag-and-drop graphic icons to control functions: pictures of motors make a robot move, watch faces control length of time, a musical note provides a “beep.”
Students figure out what they want their ‘bot to do, then drag appropriate icons from a palette and arrange them in exact sequences for specific tasks. Just like adult programmers, students have to correct errors. As they do so, they must use logic, communicate, and collaborate with up to nine teammates.
Adding light, touch, rotation, and ultrasonic sensors to their robot, they learn how to enable each robot to interact with its surroundings. They calibrate a robot’s sensors to optimize its performance. As teams learn to write more complex programs, they allow the ‘bots to choose between forks (conditional statements).
While making robots more sophisticated, youngsters learn more math, how to differentiate between speed and velocity (something their parents may not know!), the mechanics of belts and pulleys, and much more.
Great variety of robots
One fun aspect of an FLL tournament is to see the great variety of robots. No two are the same. At year’s end, robots are dismantled, awaiting next year’s team.
Hoped-for results? Building robots and entering them in com- petitions are exciting students about science and technology, so they grow more technologically literate, mathematically compe- tent, and confident about their futures.
ROBOT captions
Tension mounts for Leadore robot team members as they cheer their 'bot through 13 tasks.
Fingers point the way for robot to move during Idaho’s first national robotics competition held in Meridian (top left). The Panic Stricken Brainy Chickens team, top right, wore costumes to robotics competition. Photos by TROY MABEN
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