Build & Brag

History

Build & Brag was a joint initiative coined by Mike Salem and Chris Gearhart during a conversation about incorporating competitions into Udacity's Artificial Intelligence Nanodegree Program. Initially, the concept was designed to inspire students through competitions that build on the course content to extend beyond the basic assignment requirements for the program.

The concept of Build & Brag has evolved to now include any fun or interesting projects that are outside the scope of the program. Since Udacity Robotics Nanodegree Program will include hardware, why not have some fun hardware challenges?

Rules

The goal of Build & Brag is simple - you build, then you brag. You don't need to be a Udacity student to participate, and you can use whatever hardware you like.

1. To start, pick a topic from our list below and build it.
2. Record a brief video and put it on your website, your social media network, etc.,
3. Add this caption: "I built this as a member of the Udacity Robotics Slack community and you can too! Sign up for free at robotics.udacity.com #udacityrobo #buildbrag".

Don't forget to talk about your project in the #build_and_brag channel!

signup at robotics.udacity.com!

Challenges

Beginner

1. Blink an LED.
2. Blink two or more LEDs at varying speeds.
3. Use a button to turn on / off an LED.
4. Dim a LED with a potentiometer or soft potentiometer.
5. Change colors on an RGB LED.
6. Program a servo motor to move 90 degrees and stop, then have it go back to the starting position.
7. Spin a DC motor forwards and backwards.
8. Use an ultrasonic sensor to detect obstacles less than 1 meter away and blink and LED.
9. Capture a color image from a camera and turn it into a gray-scale image.
10. Turn on an LED if a collision is detected using a flex sensor.

Intermediate

1. Build an autonomous line following robot.
2. Build an autonomous robot that moves from one end of the table to the other end of the table and back (Silicon Valley Homebrew Robotics Challenge).
3. Detect human faces in a video stream from a camera and make the robot move autonomously towards the people.
4. Create a two-wheeled, self-balancing robot. Show that the robot does not tip over when being gently touched.
5. Create a robot that can be user controlled (tethered, wifi, bluetooth, etc.) and have it find an object, pick it up, and move it to a new location more than 1 foot away.

Advanced

1. Build a small drone running ROS and show it flying (beware away of drone regulations in your country and make sure you follow the guidelines!)

2. Build a 6 degree of freedom robot arm.

3. Create a bipedal robot capable of walking more than 4 steps unsupported without falling .

4. Create a robot to navigate autonomously around a room using ROS and some form of SLAM.

5. Build a swarm of robots that self-organize and move autonomously.