Lesson Overview

The purpose of this lesson is to give a foundational overview of the 150g combat robots project. It will cover the basic concepts of electrical circuits, as well as the safety protocols required to handle the more dangerous components of the combat robots. Students will learn the following:

• The fundamental concepts behind power, electricity, current, and voltage

• Soldering safety procedures

• Safe handling and usage of Lithium Polymer (LiPo) batteries

• Operating and practicing safety while handling the 150g combat robots

Required Kit Supplies

• None (this lesson is designed to provide background and safety information for the rover project. See Activity for more details)

Additional Required Supplies 

• None

Keywords

• Power Density: Refers to the amount of power that can be stored or delivered per unit of volume or weight. A system or component with high power density can provide or store significant power while taking up minimal space or mass.

• Power: A term used to describe providing electrical energy to different components. Devices that must be powered need both current and voltage to run.

• Polarity: Refers to the direction of electrical flow in a circuit, and determines which terminal is positive (+) and which is negative (-). When we flip the polarity of an electrical component, we are switching the positive and negative wires of the component.

• Dedicated hardware: Electrical components that are not programmable and designed to accomplish a specific purpose.

• Soldering: The process of joining two or more electrical circuits by melting a filler metal, called solder, to chemically fuse the circuits together.

• Short: Occurs when an unintended connection allows current to bypass part of a circuit, often resulting in excessive current flow and causing damage. Crossing the positive and negative wires in a power circuit can short the circuit.

Additional Resources

• LiPo Safety

  • (13) LiPo Battery Basics - Safety First - YouTube

  • LIPO Safety & Warnings (tenergy.com)

  • How to Dispose of LiPo Batteries: Safe and Easy Methods (wikihow.com)

• Soldering Safety

  • What is solder made of? Is lead-free solder our future? (vectorbluehub.com)

  • Soldering Safety | Department of Engineering Health & Safety (cam.ac.uk)

  • STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE FOR (harvard.edu)

• Other combat rules

  • SPARC