Inexpensive robot teaching platforms
Locked
 
|
My high school competes in the FIRST Robotics Competition. Every year
we have to teach new members basic robotics and programming concepts, to get them excited and prepared for the heat of competition. Those who have the patience stay with it and have a great time, but we always lose a bunch of people partly because the lessons are not very interesting or useful. I believe the solution is to teach with small robots, instead of just writing on the board and doing "hello world"-type programs. Vern, I was very inspired by your PyCon talk on teaching programming with the Scribbler. I know people have had success with it, it looks like a great robot to teach with. For our budget however, getting a bunch of these would be a stretch (I think the scribbler + fluke board combo costs $140 -- is this correct?). You do need the Fluke board unless you want to program it in BASIC Stamp or their GUI, right? I've seen some cheaper mini-robots but I'm not sure if they're any good. Does anyone have suggestions? Thanks, Blake Elias _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list [hidden email] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig |
Re: Inexpensive robot teaching platforms
|
|
Hi Blake,
On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 10:40 PM, Blake Elias <[hidden email]> wrote: My high school competes in the FIRST Robotics Competition. Every year That was exactly the same conclusion we came to, although at our school the competition uses Vexx components and is designed by local engineers. And we've had some success following the approach you suggest.
Vern, I was very inspired by your PyCon talk on teaching programming I'm glad to hear that, I'm going to give essentially the same talk at ISTE on Monday (thanks to the Python Software Foundation board for supporting that trip financially!), and I'll report back if I get any interesting feedback.
like a great robot to teach with. For our budget however, getting a You are pretty much right on all counts, except that the Scribbler/Fluke combo is more like $180. Depending on numbers it still might be worth it to work in teams of 2-4, although that does have its downside. The scribbler isn't perfect, but it's pretty darned good for the cost.
Cheers and good luck (and by all means, keep us posted). Vern I've seen some cheaper mini-robots but I'm not sure if they're any -- Vern Ceder [hidden email], [hidden email] The Quick Python Book, 2nd Ed - http://bit.ly/bRsWDW _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list [hidden email] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig |
|
|
Right now we're leaning towards the Adventure Bot:
http://custobots.com/products/adventure-bot-rs005 It's quite a bit cheaper at $80. Though it doesn't have nearly as many sensors, they'll still be able to do some cool things. And we can afford more of them so the kids can work in smaller groups. With the small amount of time we have to teach, I'm not sure we'd even get a chance to use the Scribbler's additional capabilities like camera processing. Once they see the basics on the small robot, they'll be able to play a little bit with the larger ones we build for the competition, which weigh 120 lbs and have more functions. Those just aren't great teaching tools in the beginning because they take up more space and we don't have enough of them for kids to work in groups of 1-3. Blake Elias On Fri, Jun 24, 2011 at 1:16 AM, Vern Ceder <[hidden email]> wrote: > Hi Blake, > > On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 10:40 PM, Blake Elias <[hidden email]> wrote: >> >> My high school competes in the FIRST Robotics Competition. Every year >> we have to teach new members basic robotics and programming concepts, >> to get them excited and prepared for the heat of competition. Those >> who have the patience stay with it and have a great time, but we >> always lose a bunch of people partly because the lessons are not very >> interesting or useful. I believe the solution is to teach with small >> robots, instead of just writing on the board and doing "hello >> world"-type programs. > > That was exactly the same conclusion we came to, although at our school the > competition uses Vexx components and is designed by local engineers. And > we've had some success following the approach you suggest. > >> >> Vern, I was very inspired by your PyCon talk on teaching programming >> with the Scribbler. I know people have had success with it, it looks > > I'm glad to hear that, I'm going to give essentially the same talk at ISTE > on Monday (thanks to the Python Software Foundation board for supporting > that trip financially!), and I'll report back if I get any interesting > feedback. >> >> like a great robot to teach with. For our budget however, getting a >> bunch of these would be a stretch (I think the scribbler + fluke board >> combo costs $140 -- is this correct?). You do need the Fluke board >> unless you want to program it in BASIC Stamp or their GUI, right? > > You are pretty much right on all counts, except that the Scribbler/Fluke > combo is more like $180. Depending on numbers it still might be worth it to > work in teams of 2-4, although that does have its downside. The scribbler > isn't perfect, but it's pretty darned good for the cost. > Cheers and good luck (and by all means, keep us posted). > Vern >> >> I've seen some cheaper mini-robots but I'm not sure if they're any >> good. Does anyone have suggestions? >> >> >> Thanks, >> Blake Elias >> _______________________________________________ >> Edu-sig mailing list >> [hidden email] >> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig > > > > -- > Vern Ceder > [hidden email], [hidden email] > The Quick Python Book, 2nd Ed - http://bit.ly/bRsWDW > > > Edu-sig mailing list [hidden email] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig |
Re: Inexpensive robot teaching platforms
|
|
Definitely looks promising. Keep us posted and good luck!
Vern
On Fri, Jun 24, 2011 at 11:09 AM, Blake Elias <[hidden email]> wrote: Right now we're leaning towards the Adventure Bot: -- Vern Ceder [hidden email], [hidden email] The Quick Python Book, 2nd Ed - http://bit.ly/bRsWDW _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list [hidden email] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig |
Re: Inexpensive robot teaching platforms
|
|
In reply to this post by Blake-32
Here's another possibility, 100 bucks, programmable in Jython along with
several other languages: http://www.finchrobot.com/ Temp sensor, accelerometer, two IR sensors, two photodetectors. No batteries, it's powered off it's 15 foot USB cable, not sure if that's a bug or a feature. I haven't actually seen or used one. Cheers, Andy _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list [hidden email] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig |
Re: Inexpensive robot teaching platforms
|
|
Fun to enhance robotics threads with science fiction, to give it more texture. My Martian Math class last summer focused on Python, but also the Mars probes (watched some Youtubes [1]),
sometimes called robots, though remotely piloted, not autonomous (the case with many robots, including bomb removal and undersea oil work). The robots in War of the Worlds ("tripods") were actually
piloted as well, and were defended against only ineffectually by humans (Tom Cruise included), eventually succumbed to the "immune system" of Gaia herself. The alien pilots had no immunity to Earthian germs (why should they?).[2]
Having an object oriented language at one's elbow is really handy, as then it becomes easier to think in terms of attributes and behaviors (methods) as discrete, well-
defined Python modules. Although hardware is wonderful when you can afford it, a "sensor" in software might still be modeled. My Tractor class has a Sensor subclass that "reads" the
8 cells in its neighborhood (N NW W SW S SE E NE). This would be ASCII bytes in a 2d array (a Farm object). A Tractor is nothing more than a simplified Turtle, exploring a new space of metaphors (there's also a fuel burning
aspect -- Tractors run out of gas, much as robots may run out of battery power unless recharged).[3][4] Kirby _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list [hidden email] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig |
|
|
In reply to this post by Andy Judkis
Andy thanks so much for recommending the Finch bot. We just bought 5
and are going to use them this year. Looks like it's going to be very fun to teach with them! Blake Elias On Sat, Jun 25, 2011 at 9:14 AM, Andy Judkis <[hidden email]> wrote: > Here's another possibility, 100 bucks, programmable in Jython along with > several other languages: > > http://www.finchrobot.com/ > > Temp sensor, accelerometer, two IR sensors, two photodetectors. No > batteries, it's powered off it's 15 foot USB cable, not sure if that's a bug > or a feature. > I haven't actually seen or used one. > > Cheers, > Andy > > > _______________________________________________ > Edu-sig mailing list > [hidden email] > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig > Edu-sig mailing list [hidden email] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig |
«
Return to Python - edu-sig
|
1 view|%1 views
| Free forum by Nabble | Edit this page |