Next step

Since the students have build their Robots and have put all the sensors on them we started learning to program. We begone with the simplest program of making the robot drive forward for 50cm. The students learned that each wheel circumference is 20cm and thus realized that they have to program the wheels to turn 2.5 rotations.

After students have learned the basic movements of forward, back, right turn, and left turn I started giving them challenges to complete.

In the first challenge the students had to make 2 basic 90 degree turns and stop in the specified box.

The second challenge was to navigate a masking tape maze. It was a bit more complex because the angles were all random and if the students made a mistake on the first turn the whole maze was thrown off. Students have figured out that if they slow down the motors they become less jerky and wobble a lot less when turning thus increasing predictability and consistency of the turns.

The next sensor we learned about is the bumper sensor. Which turns on (like the name states) when it is bumped.

The last two sensors that we have learned about is the proximity sensor and the LED sensor. Students had to back up their robot and an use the proximity sensor the judge the distance. When the distance to the objects was 75cm the LED had to turn Orange, when it was 50cm it turned Red and the distance was 25cm the robot stopped.

I had also completed the charging station for my class so now my students have no excuses of not working because they always have fresh batteries for their robots.

That is all for now but in the future we are going to learn about more sensors and some more complex programing.