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Why Does the Robotics Class Need More Motors?
Spike Prime Driving Base
EV3 Driving Base
More Motors Means More Engineering Options!
Robotics students always start with a base build design provided in the programming app, but they are encouraged to make creative design changes to meet the challenges presented to them.
Students in the robotics class learn to code so that they can command their robot to complete missions on the challenge board. Every year the challenge board is different. there are no instructions for how to complete the tasks. Students only know the start position of each model and what the end position is required to be. It is up to them to modify their robot and program their robot to make it happen.
EV3 lightshow video 2024-05-23 at 10.29.09 AM.movWhile students have a great deal of creativity and can benefit from working within limitations, having more motors available to them to try different designs can open up a great deal more options.
This is an example of a student-designed solution to the problem of raising an object vertically using a motor that operates radially -- OUTSTANDING!!
IMG_0248.MOVHere, the student added two additional motors to design an arm that has much more range of motions in multiple planes, making it more vertical.
MIND BLOWING!!
IMG_0240.MOVThe same robot has an additional motor on the opposite end to accommodate another specialized attachment.
AWE INSPIRING!!
We currently only have enough Spike Prime robots for use by the Advanced STEM-Robotics classes. They have the options to completely redesign their driving bases making it impossible to share those robots with the wheel classes which need to all have the original driving base.
Orange plane p5r12 slo-moWe currently have an aging fleet of EV3 robots used in the exploratory wheel classes (trimester long). LEGO no longer manufactures or supports these robots and... the motors are no longer available when they need to be replaced. Many of ours are no longer functional and we are at risk of not having enough equipment to support the wheel classes that inspire students to join the advanced classes.
Transportation journey orangeWe are working on procuring Spike Prime robots to replace our aging fleet of EV3s.
Unfortunately, the EV3 motors are not compatible with Spike Prime. With past LEGO robot generations, certain components were compatible between models. About seven years ago, when we transitioned fully to EV3's from NXT's, we were able to do so gradually because many NXT parts were compatible with EV3. This is not true of the Spike Primes
Additionally, the Spike Prime sets come with only three motors: one for each wheel and one for the standard attachment on the front. Can we work with that? Yes. Is it optimal? No. The lack of extra motors is very limiting to what students can create.
Gallery of motorized student-designed-and-built attachments
IMG_0250.MOVIMG_0253.MOVIMG_0251.MOVIMG_0254.MOVThere are more examples scattered around my website. Feel free to browse my website to see what else we do!
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