About the Bot

The Bot is based on the Lego Mindstorms 45544 EV3 Educational Kit, with three additional sensors (NXT Sound, HiTechnic Accelerometer, HiTechnic Infrared Seeker V2), plus an optional headlamp scavenged from the older NXT Bot (for motor port A). Students can connect up to four of the eight mounted Bot sensors at any one time, for a wide degree of flexibility in lab programming assignments, and design project definition (students create their own project).

The Bot has a number of design features that make it robust for lab use (each Bot sees extensive use during twelve 2-hour sessions each week):

1) the structure is solid, and multiple cross-braces prevent accidental dislocation of parts during handling.

2) all sensors are mounted such that the front sensor cables will never need any twist in them (to avoid twist-fatigue when reconfiguring sensor connections).

3) a rear bumper assembly protects the rear motor cables and ports from rear-going crashes.

4) integrated jackstands allow benchtop testing of programs wihout fear of the Bot accidentally driving off the edge (a PDF on the QEV3Bot Physical page describes their use).

5) to avoid wear and tear on the EV3 Brick's USB and power plug connectors (from repeated connecting and disconnecting), optional extender cables are included.

The Bot's features include:

1) a pair of front contact sensors with a unique rotating design which allows contact detection over a wide range of angles, whether driving forward or during Bot rotation.

2) front-mounted ultrasonic ranging, gyroscope, and IR-seeker sensors.

3) center-mounted downward-looking color/light sesnor

4) EV3-brick-mounted NXT sound and HiTechnic 3-axis accelerometer sensors.

5) the medium Lego motor is used as a pointer motor (pointing output device).

6) optional NXT-kit incandescent headlamp assembly on motor port A.

You can see from the BOM document provided on the QEV3Bot Physical page that virtually all of the required parts are available in the 45544 kit. However there are a few extra Lego parts needed per Bot which can be readily ordered online through Lego, or from a third-party vendor:

43093 short blue cross-axle pin -- QTY 13

6558 long blue connector pin -- QTY 3

32250 halfbeam curved -- QTY 2 (optional for the wide-contact-angle touch sensor assembly)