The Three Musketeers
What is Computer Science?
Computer Science is the study of computers and systems. Computer Scientists tend to deal with software by figuring out theory, design, development, and application.
What is Mechanical Engineering?
Mechanical engineering the the study of systems and objects that are in motion.
Red Robin
Spark Fun Red Bot Kit
Dwight Schrute
Spark Fun Inventor's Kit
Hank the Tank
Two-Track Robot
Red Robin
Building Red Robin
Michele and Ainsley spent the majority of the first day constructing the RedBot. They used the design of another RedBot to understand the wiring and design they needed to follow to build their own bot.
Programming Red Robin
Next, Michele and Ainsley moved on to programming the red bot. They used the Arduino program to give the robot its intelligence.
Result
By the end of the day they had gotten the robot to sense and maneuver around objects.
Dwight Schrute
Building
Michele and Ainsley built and wired the SparkFun robot. They spent time making sure the robot was stable and ready for presentation.
Programming
Eric wired his own RedBoard and Breadboard, so he could begin programming the robot. At the end Eric, Ainsley, and Michele joined forces to get Dwight Schrute to sense and maneuver around objects.
IMG_2338.mov
Hank the Tank
Start Up
Eric and Jack started building the track vehicles, while RL, Kaylan, Michelle, and Ainsley worked on the inventor's kit to learn programming.
Designing
Kaylan, RL, and Jack began designing the robot on the second day. They brainstormed different ways to connect the two tracked robots in addition to incorporating all three types of sensors.
Intelligence
Jack and Kaylan worked on brainstorming many possible obstacles for Hank the Tank to get around. They drew out each obstacle and described what the robot would need to do to get around it. They first worked on the case that only has one obstacle, they drew the plan of the motion, kept adjusting and improving their idea with multi-obstacles cases.
IMG_2616.mov
Scratch
RL, after listening to Kaylan and Jack's ideas regarding getting around obstacles, proceeded to create an animated version of their ideas.
My Movie 1.mp4
Building
Eric and RL built the first version of Hank the Tank. Then Eric later figured out the second version of Hank the Tank and, kept improving and testing its mechanic structure. He also tried to program Hank, but it failed completely. The first design is too wide, so its was hard for it to turn and the connection of two boards was too weak. The touch sensors dis not have enough space between them, so to improve it, he added two steel sticks in the white board that connected each wood board to its corresponding motor. Then he built a small white board over the motors so there would be enough space for touch sensors. We still used small wheels to support track because the less area the track contacted the ground on, the easier it was for the robot to turn. The light sensors are slightly lower than the wood board, so it can sensor the lights more precisely. The white board over the motors and white board connect two wood boards and provide spaces for batteries.
Wiring
Ainsley, while Kaylan and Jack were designing the robot, was creating a wiring diagram for Hank the Tank.
Programming
The first day, Michele built red robin with Ainsley. After it was built Ainsley and Michele moved onto making Dwight. They started with the basic projects in the inventors kit until they were able to build a basic motor program. Then they moved onto the autonomous robot and programmed it to detect objects with the ultrasonic sensors. It wasn’t that hard because they used the example codes. Next, they moved on to programming Red Robin which was hard to figure out, but after they did it became pretty simple. Lastly they worked on programming Hank.
