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Documentation of the mock-up building process: assembling the mBot
mBot movieA video of the mechnical assembly
Here is a mesmerizing video of the physical building of the mBot, without the wiring, (featuring, my cat).
In the beginning, I had a little trouble figuring out which screws go where, but generally, the robot was pretty easy to build. The design of the wheels and metal casing are aesthetically pleasing, and all the pieces fit together nicely and cleanly . However, the actual hardware did not come with a protective case in my kit, although it is provided in other kits, as seen on their website.
The finished mockup
The night before, I finished the wiring of the robot. However, the remote wouldn't work, and the Bluetooth module piece would get overheated in a matter of seconds (which worried me a lot). So, I brought it into school and consulted with my teacher. Turns out I didn't have all the ports aligned. If you build this robot, be very meticulous so you don't make worrisome mistakes!
MBot driving mode bMode B
Today I played around with the mBot mock-up to see its full potential. The remote control is pretty intuitive (see below), and it has two other interesting functions, wall avoidance and line following. However, as seen in the video, it was avoiding the wall in a very strange way (not really avoiding it at all!). This might be because the range of the sensor is limited to only seeing in front (like a horse with blinders). I might improve this aspect for my prototype.
MBot mode cMode C
This is Mode C. I didn't supply the line, so it didn't really work that well, but it would be interesting to research why it just goes around itself. (Is it searching the line to follow?)
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