Robot Club Projects That Need A Team

"Fire Breathing Robots..." Project Ideas

These are projects that need a team to try it out. Pick something that your interested in, and put a team, and talk to your teacher.

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WORK IN PROGRESS

Old link is here, and will have project listed there. If there are not project, then this link will get deleted.

Overview:

This is the site to find all the Mechatronics Robot Club projects... This site is for the "In Class" robot club and the official extracurricular "SVCTE Robot Club". What's the difference?

In Class Robot Club - This is robotics activities and projects that are part of my SVCTE Mechatronics class. Typically we will have 1 -2 hours of time, in class to work on "Mechatronics Engineering Robot Club" projects. These don't necessarily have to be part of the extracurricular SVCTE Robot Club. They can be, but don't have to be. Mostly they will just be robotics project that you are doing as part of my class, where you will get graded as part of my class. Manny of these projects are listed below.

SVCTE Robot Club - This the real extracurricular Robot Club. This is the part of the club where all the projects are focused on competitions. In this part of the club, students will not only be participation in the "In Class Robot Club", but they will be competing after school and on some weekends. Students who participate at this level will need to be commuted to the competition and their teams.

If it's a project that is more than a few days of work, if should be listed and have an "Official" project Google Doc page

Open Lab "Engineering Notebook" - This is where EVERY STUDENT is expected to post what they did during Open lab. If you don't post here on the day of the Open Lab, then you will not receive the full points. See the 🚧🛠️ 🏗️🚧 Open Lab Rubric Instructions 🚧🛠️ 🏗️🚧 for full explanation of points. Depending on what you worked on, you or your team mates could be filling out Your personal Engineering Notebook, or a Project specific Engineering Notebook Google Doc.

Please let me know if you don't have author privileges to your "Official" Robotic Club Project Engineering Notebook.

Caution & Safety Considerations:

Primer: "Aaron, I can imagine no way in which this thing could be considered anywhere remotely close to safe. All I know is I spent six hours in there and I'm still alive... You still want to do it?"

As with any activity, please make sure you are using appropriate safety equipment. If you are coding, writing, reading, or working a lab, make sure you stand up and stretch every hour or so, Please consider any safety issues connecting to a Raspberry Pi, Arduino, computers and other electronic equipment.

Competitions

These are projects that are team based competitions, so they have a longer and more dedicated commitment required. They are all team based.

HBRC - Don't Drive Off The Table - Simple Microcontroller Based Robot Cars

I can have many teams to compete in HBRC - Don't Drive Off The Table Challenge. These can be teams of 2 students, who build a rover and compete.

SkillsUSA (Vex) Robotics Competition

I can have 5-6 teams (teams are 2 students each) to compete in Skills USA. This is a great project where you learn to code, engineer a driving robot, for sure 3D print stuff for your robot, and then drive your robot via teli-presence... Think first person driving video game.

(Maybe) Hydrogen Powers Race cars - But You Can Still Work On The Cars

I can have 2 teams to compete in Horizon Hydrogen Power cars. This is a project where 3-4 students teams will build, tune and evaluate the efficiency of a hydrogen powered race car. These are 1/10 scale remote control cars that you race on an "indi 500" track to see who can go the fastest, but in the most efficient way, using the least amount of battery and hydrogen fuel.

DIY ROBO Cars - Autonomous Robot Cars

I can have 6-8 teams to compete in DIY Robo Cars. These can be teams of 2-3 students, who take a standard 1/10 scale RC car, replace the RC part with a Raspberry Pi or NVIDIA Jetson Nano micro computer and turn it into an Autonomous car that can drive a track after being trained as an AI

NEW Project Idea.... I Think Of All Kinds Of Crazy

Small Custom Jobs - Maybe they are 1-3 Days

Ever Changing List:

Consolidate First Aid Kits
Research and Recommend blades for new scroll saw
Research Dust Bag for power tools
Drill hole in wall for brush
3D Print clip for Solder table VAC tube
Solder DMM cables
Battery lab connector wires
Glue board on Tray boxes
Plan tool holes and placement
Drill 2 holes and build a 2nd loop for solder vac

Computer Hardware/Cyber Security Projects

These are projects that are probably mostly focused on repurposing or "hacking" computer Hardware.

Projects using an old Modem / Gateways on a Robot/Rover

I have some Modem / Gateways that could be setup as a local private Network, running on a Robot/Rover. Tgis project would be to figure out and create the step by step guide on setting up a network using these gateways. ChatGPT says the following about Using an old Gateway for a Robot project.

GPT Prompt: What can I use an old Broadband Gateway for, especially in a robot network project?"

I have a bunch of old Dell Laptops... some are old 32 bit Chips, and probably we just want to trash these...

I have a set of old Laptops, that we need to check if they are good, and if we can load Linux on them... and if they are even worth keeping.mm maybe a cyber rack device...

Move and hook up Speakers to class audio/Video system

I have a set of old Speakers, that I want to connect to my class Audio system

Computer Hardware/Cyber Security Projects

These are projects that are probably mostly focused on repurposing or "hacking" computer Hardware.

Parabolic Sound Zone, Museum Like?

This is a project to take a set of speakers and have them in a parabolic system, that will let the sound only point dow in a very specific spot. If you are standing in that spot, you can hear the soound, and if you are not... You cant. The goal is to have a PC at the entry of the class, that is playing some Class introduction videos, and guest can stand there and watch and hear them.... but any where else in the class you can hear them.

AC/DC Projects

These are projects that are probably mostly focused on AC/DC labs and equipment.

LED Light Strip, under cabinet light (solder Table, 3D Print Table)

This is a project to take a light strip, figure out the voltage requirements, and mount under the Sodder table and 3D print space

STEAM PUNK spinning LED wire

This is a project to take a DC motor (from the printer teardown project) and connect it to an LED WIRE (EL Wire) so it can spin... the trick here is to have a connection to the led-wire that can be connected to the shaft of the motor, but also have power to the LED with out twisting up... think about this.

STROBE PUNK spinning 3D Printed Shapes

This is a project to take a DC motor (from the printer teardown project) and connect it to an interesting 3D Printed shape, so it can spin... Then have a strobe light strobing, where we can control the speed of the strobe/motor with a potentiometer... think about this.

Solder Projects

These are projects that are probably mostly Soldering.

Helping Hands

This is a project to take some flexible "octopus" hands and mount them to a small board hot glued to a heavy metal bar. I have about 4 of these to build

Change the power connector on random Power Supplies

This is a project to change the power connectors on some random power supplies.

Find the power supplies voltage and amps
cut off the power connector end
Strip and tin the ends
Verify the +/- connections
connect to a power adaptor

Solder Shadow Box LEDs

This is a project to solder power connections' on some super Bright LEDS

Soldering Class lab projects

Come talk to me about this project. I want to have some stuff soldered... but you need to pass my soldering expectations and inspections. Soldering Power Adapter. Speakers, Switches, etc.

Halloween?

These are projects that are focused on Halloween

Nio-Pixel Candles

These are PVC "candles" that use neopixel LED for a Halloween project.

Halloween - Brain In A Tank

Update to run from an Arduino / Raspberry Pi. Update the Water Proof LEDs. Update all the LED and other "Life" indicators.
Add an Alexa like Conversation Bot, that could answer Yes or No Questions or even a Magic 8 Ball type questions... but with a little context in a conversation... connect to IBM Watson. This would involve building an IBM cloud chat bot.

Halloween - Magic 8 Ball like Ouija board

Get a stepper motor to move on a circle, and another to move left and right with a magnet to move a token

Halloween - Edger Allen Poe

run some EYEs on screens

Halloween - Monster in the "water"

like the Start Wars garbage compactor monster

Halloween - Ghost Hunter stuff - Paranormal Detector Stuff

How to Make a Fake Geiger Counter
Lighting Pumpkins - update all the light in the pumpkins
Singing Pumpkins - This project is to take all my Jack-O-Lanterns and do the following - Clean up and maybe coat with foam hardener
Rewire with 12 volt RGB LED that can be addressed and controlled by Micro
Dan Joke - Pumpkins - Setup Arduino/Pi to let Jack-O-Lanterns tell Jokes - Setup Arduino/Pi to let Jack-O-Lanterns sing
Zombie Break Out - This project is to take all the Rebar stick figures and "corpse" them with the bones and plastic
- get chain-link fencing and connect pneumatic to it to shake
- have some of the other zombies move...
- More thoughts... this could be like Leo's prop, with the chain link fence, but it could also be an elevator door too...
Mad Scientist Lab
- Like Leo's lab with chemicals and lab equipment...
Use the NICU equipment for some type of Alien or experiment gone bad
Drop Spider - Simple drop/pull a string (actor controlled)

Project That Don't Need a MicroController / Arduino / Raspberry Pi Projects

These are projects that don't need a Microcontroller or Raspberry PI, so we can do them earlier in the year.

Sand and Paint the Robot Boxes

Come talk to me about this project. I want to sand and paint my robot project boxes. I want to make it better to use them for Robot completions, and painting on some line following lines and stuff.

Airplanes

Come talk to me about this project. But I can have 2 teams in the AM and 2 Teams in the PM. This is more than just flying the planes, maybe it's putting a first person camera on the planes. Maybe it's putting a GPS and then geofencing the plains to fly in a circle.

Small Drones

Come talk to me about this project. I have a few drones. They may be all junk, or maybe they can fly. I would need a few teams of 2 students to check them out, get them flying, and then see what we can do with them.

Marble works board attaching to Rolling TV stand - wood construction project

Come talk to me about this project. but it's a wood construction project to connect some magnet board to the TV stand.

Hot Plates

Come talk to me about this project. I have 2 Hotplates, that may be able to melt solder... Please clean them up, and test them. I'll give you a link to a resources page to update with a "How To Use Safely" tutorial that you will write

Project That Need a MicroController / Arduino / Raspberry Pi Projects

These are projects that might need a Microcontroller or Raspberry PI

Computer History - Arduino simulation of the Eniac,

Find the code to simulate an ENIAC and build a LED matrix to model the Tubes

https://hackaday.com/2017/01/31/eniac-the-way-we-were/

R/C Controller test Jig

Build a test Jig, that will let us connect 8 channels. 1 ESC motors and the other s servo and other test connections

Big Digital Clock

I want a big Digital 7 Segment clock. This project is 1) build a laser cut digital clock display, and light the segments with some LED (Programable RGB) and then an Arduino with a Wifi connection to be able to pull an accurate time. Then have a remote to let us set timers and stiff...

Tardis Art Project

Add an Arduino/Raspberry Pi 0 and a motion sensor to sense people and maybe then play the Tardis Dr. Who Music... Want to do this project? Ask Mr. Burnham... This project was started, but not finished... it's a fun semi engineering / semi Art project, to turn a class cabinet into a Tardis

Space Ship Cockpit

With the Film and Arts & Construction class, build a "working" Space Ship Cockpit. Check out these Google Images of Space Ship Cockpits. This project is modular, so the first steps are as follows:

Design and Layout the Frame. This needs to be modular, so we can "open" bulkheads to film through. Drawing, Measuring, and maybe a CAD drawing. - 2 student team
Based on the frame layout, start designing "panels" that will be Lights, Gauges, LEDs, Switches, Etc. These mostly will be run with a Arduino or 2 - Multiple 2 student teams

Smaller Spaceship Model / Layout and Diorama

Come talk to me about this project. This project is creative art, with engineering planning.

Box of Technical Traps

This is a project to create a "russan Nesting Doll" set of electronic puzzels and traps to get to the center of the trunk. There will be "traps" from the first action of opening the trunk, and going down layer my layer and box by box. The goal will be to solve all the traps and puzzels before the time runs out or you triggered a trap. We woould reset the puzzles and traps and let a new team solve it...

Design and Layout an overall design of nested traps, and then start designing the individual traps.
Based on the overall layout, start designing "traps" that can besolved and disabled. These mostly will be run with an Arduino and maybe monitored by a Raspberry Pi. Each trap is a 2 student team project.

Hack old hand held Radios to be communication between Microcontrollers

This project is to create a page that documents the process to

How to hack a Radio to transmit Data using an Arduino or other Microcontroller
How to hack a Radio to receive Data using an Arduino or other Microcontroller
Document this process, so others can take a radio pair and add a radio link to a project

Infrared Remotes

This project is to create a page that documents the process to

Arduino - Build an Arduino designs to receive an Infrared signal and decode it.
(2nd Semester) Raspberry Pi Pico - Raspberry Pi Pico designs to receive an Infrared signal and decode it.
Decode the infrared signal codes from a specific remote and document the process, so other students can use that remote in a project. ( I have a few different remotes, and each team of 2 can work on a specific remote.
Eventually these deign specific to a specific remote will be posed on a GitHub site.

Infrared Remotes & Robots

This project is to create a page that documents the process to

Connect an Infrared Remote to a robot ( I have a few different remotes, and each team of 2 can work on a specific robot/remote.

(Advanced / 2nd Semester?) Arduino and Raspberry Pi talking to each other over Serial

This project is to have a raspberry Pi talking to an Arduino over a USB port from the Raspberry Pi to the Arduino. The Raspberry Pi will be the "terminal" and the Arduino is the target. Do stuff like have the Pi request status of some registers, or tell the Arduino to do something... all through the Serial Port.

Cybersecurity Rack - WiFi in a Case

Come talk to me about this project. I want to make a WiFi "hotSpot" that i can take to events. I see this getting used as a stand alone network that we could use with a Raspberry Pi workshop, or plug it in to an existing network to have our own network Plus internet. I also want to see about connecting it to a mobile hot spot...

Mount and control one Stadium Light Stepper Motors

Come talk to me about this project. This project is about hacking the Stadium light so we can control the stepper motors. This project will involve some research to learn how the stepper motors work, and what drivers we need to run them. Then it also involves to figure out how to mount it and light it with a smaller power light.

Arduino Based - Mechatronics Class Demos On Board

I can have a few teams to build Electronics demos on our class board. Quick little interactive demos of electronics on Bread boards, Arduinos, etc. Put my "Mechatronics backlight sign and run RBG LEDs.

DIY ROBOT Demonstrator - Left Right Position Platform

I can have 2 teams to build a printer parts based robot to move left to right and control the position. These can be teams of 2 students, who learn about DC motors, control the speed, and position and collect data on the current position. Probably an Arduino, but could be a Raspberry Pi

2023-2024
Scott

DIY ROBOT Demonstrator - Conveyor belt

DIY ROBOT Demonstrator - Robot Arm to pick and place a cube on the "Left Right Position Platform"

M&M Sorter (Color Sensor)

Add Arduino and color sensor to M&M sorter. Programming, Color sensor, and servo motors

SpaceX docking with the Space-station

This could be in conjunction with LetsRobot.tv, but the plan would be to have a small air powered hover chair / xyz system that "feels" like 0g... and you control it as if you were there.. so live tele-presences. maybe with an Oculus... Ask me about this project...

Remote Control Radios/Servo Controllers

This project is to verify that a few radio controllers I have work. It would be a fun project, because you would learn about RC radios, Frequencies used, and how they connect to the servo controllers. Talsk to me about this project

Semaphore Flag Robot

Build a robot that spells out text in Semaphores... have a raspberry Pi drive some stepper motors. make it so you can post to a log or other site to capture text... maybe filter it to not swear...

This could be a letsrobot.tv robot

You could add Morse code to LED too... and maybe other coding types... Manchester encoding like we were sending to the Voyager space craft...

Then have another Pi do OpenCV and "read" what they are saying...

Claw Machine

Come talk to me about this project. Its 3-4 parts. The Hardware and the Software. It should probably be 2 teams. It should probably be a Raspberry Pi, but it could be an Arduino 101 with WiFi. This project will be the way you "buy" headphones and other stuff in my class. Check out Taiwan's obsession with Claw Machines... they are every where.

Could have a RFID change machine
Claw Machine Hardware
Claw machine Software

Jeopardy Game Controller

Build a Arduino or Raspberry Pi based Jeopardy Game controllers and 4-8 buttons. Attention must be paid to make sure the sensing of button pushes is as Random as possible... Maybe this should be a class lab... to see who's design is the most random and fair.

3D Print Projects

These are 3D Print project... see this link for more... More 3D Print Projects

More 3D Print Projects

see this link for more... More 3D Print Projects

3D Printer Resource Page for Printers

Do some research, Rework and revise the step by step guide to using the 3 different types of printers. One team per printer.

3D Printer Resources Page

Farm-NG Bot Small Version

Do some research, and build a 3D printed version of the Farm-NG bot Amiga. Let's replicate this Amiga robot with some small 80/20 rails and some Rumba drive motors. It's a big 3D Print project + Electronics and control. I want to replicate most of the features the Amiga has, just smaller.

Computer History - Make an Abacus

Do some research, and build a 3D printed Abacus... on that a robot could move the beads/markers, so we could have one of our Raspberry Pi robots do math.

Computer History - Leibniz Stepped Reckoner,

The Leibniz Stepped Reckoner, also known as the Leibniz calculator, was a mechanical calculator designed and built by German mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJVvgzTTGQY

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Mi_eBwFBnRA

Computer History - Napier's Bones,

Laser Cut and Engraving - google image search

computer history Demo image

Marble works connectors - 3D Print Project #1

Come talk to me about this project. but it's a set of connectors to connect to a few different PVC pipe and fittings. 3/4 pipe and 1/2 fittings mostly, but we should do a few other sizes too.

Marble works marble lifter - 3D Print Project #2

After the Marble works board is constructed, we want to lift marbles from a lower reservoir to an upper reservoir

Marble works marble gate - 3D Print Project #3

Marble works mechanisms that will catch and release marbles

Projects We Can't Do Right Now, But Maybe In the Future

These are projects tht might need a a Microcontroller or Raspberry PI, so we can do them later in the year.

Plastic Grinder Project

Make the plastic grinder... the idea is to produce a shredded plastic powder/grindings about the consistency of sawdust. Then use this in plastic/sand brick making mold. This is first a research project, but then a prototype build project with Metals technology to try building something that works, but can easily be replicated by DIY hobbyists.

The Search for a Plastic Grinder
- I like the idea of using stacked sawblades - bought a bunch of 7.5 inch carbide saw blades from harbor freight stacked them together in a in closer that had holes in the bottom the size of the particle I wanted, feeding the foam in the top of the rotating blades, through a smaller opening, particles fell out the bottom. Worked best with a fine spray of water to keep the static electricity down. (maybe just grounding everything)
- How To Shred Plastics
- Granulate or Shred: Which Makes Sense for You?
- Gran Grinder?
- Small can/plastic grinder
- Sheading Machine - (DIY)
- Shreddy

Plastic Mold Project

after we makes a plastic grinder... the idea is to produce a compression mold system that can make compressed plastic bricks from shredded plastic powder/grindings and sand.

Reference, Attribution & Resources:

License - "Be A Hero"... Distribute Your Content As Open Source... That Is What I'm Doing...

The content on this site may have been pulled from other open source sites, but typically the interpretation and presentation is primarily the Intellectual Property of Jim Burnham, - TopClown@STEAMClown.org at www.steamclown.org and the Student curriculum can be found under the specific Mechatronics Engineering Units section of this web site.
If you do use my material, and make changes, I would appreciate getting a copy... because if you are making changes, it means that you think there is a better way to teach this… and I would really appreciate understanding that. Please send me feedback on my Questions or Feedback form. Please don’t hesitate to ask questions or comment.
You also should keep and include my STEAM Clown Logo and Copyright in any derivative works you create. I would appreciate if you would include one of these images found on my Steam Clown License page and link it to www.steamclown.org

Teachers - Unit, Module and Lesson Plans

If you are a teacher and want to connect and teach this Lesson or Module, discuss how I teach it, give me feedback, please contact me at TopClown@STEAMClown.org

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Standards Alignments & Objectives:

I’ll work on getting these in, but it’s the last thing I want to work on :-) When I have them updated, I’ll move to the top of the Lesson Plan.

NGSS: <list standard numbers>
California CTE Standards: <list standard numbers>
Related Instructional Objectives (SWBAT): <list standard numbers>
CCSS: nnn, RSIT: nnn, RLST: nnn, WS: nnn, WHSST: nnn, A-CED: nnn, ETS: nnn <list standard numbers>
Main Standard:
Priority standards:
National Standards:

Resource Attribution:
Sites Referenced or Summarized:

Reference Text Book - Basic College Mathematics with Early Integers 4th edition - Elayn Martin-Gay - University of New Orleans - Pearson
Reference Sites -

Images:

https://imgbin.com/png/ZJtzkYZZ/under-construction-png

Random Stuff To Sort

Power Supply Current and Voltage Measurement Tester

This is a project to take some this high power potentiameter and set it up to test a power supply. The plan is to create a nice looking case (printed or wood) and connect some power connectors, that flow through the potentiometer. You are connecting the power supply so that the resistance it sees is the potentiometer, with maybe another power resistor of about 5 ohms. The theory is that you have 2 DMMs permantly connected to measure the voltage and current. You could have another that lets you measure Resistance, but you want to make sure to disconnect that one before you connect power. Maybe with a DPDT switch, that disconnects the power connectors when in Resistance mode.

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