Creepy Crawlers at Capitol College

Capitol College and the NASA Robotics Academy presented "Creepy Crawlers," a public lecture by Dr. Roger Quinn of Case Western Reserve University on Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 7:30 p.m. in the Avrum Gudelsky Memorial Auditorium. This fun and exciting robotics lecture had something for all ages, featuring live demonstrations of Dr. Quinn's bio-inspired robots. Dr. Quinn's current work includes developing robots that can move through pipelines, robots that can fly long distances, land and walk, robots that can climb vertical surfaces using animal-inspired materials and mechanisms, robots that can move well on land and in water, and developing insect-inspired intelligent systems to increase the autonomy of mobile robots.

Ballou Summer Career Pathways Showcase 2009

On Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 12:30 pm, the Ballou Summer Showcase featured dance, public speaking, hospitality, mass media, computer applications, cosmotology and robotics/engineering. The culinary class provided refreshments for program participants. Many thanks to the Summer School leadership team and participants for their support!

Another challenge ... Take a square that is 4' x 4'. Put a small 6" x 6" square in the middle. Place the robot on the center square. Place the red and blue ball randomly about the large square. Find the red ball, bring it back to the center. Find the blue ball, bring it back to the center. For a variation, if you have the balls, put in more than 1 red and more than 1 blue in the large square. Collect the red balls first, then the blue. Bear seems ready to take on the challenge!

Introducing Ben, our TETRIX Robot

Today we broke out the TETRIX kit and started building. We named the robot "Ben" and built a basic chassis with indirect drive, mounted motors and drive wheels and back wheels. Things are kind of shaky without a wrench to tighten things down, but Mrs. Lewis will bring one to class tomorrow.

Variables, Thresholds and Line Counting

It's pay day and it's quiet here. But the work continues ... learning how to create variable to store different types of values (integers, floating point decimals, strings of text and Boolean logic). Also counting lines ... we need all of this to complete the challenge.

Continuing the Challenge - Sonar Issues

Okay, so we've got it to drive straight and turn. Now the ultrasonic sensor is acting crazy! We used the view feature on the NXT ... will call the other teams for tips and try again tomorrow. Rickeda created this neat gripper to guide the can to the end point. We don't have a soda can yet, so a can of air freshener will have to do for now!

So far, the robot can drive straight and make the left turn. Tomorrow, we will tackle the next step of the Challenge ... locating the can using sonar (ultrasonic sensor)!

A Mid-Summer Program Challenge

Bear the Robo-dog sets his sights on the can! Rickeda and Debbriel learned about PID in order to make the robot drive straight. We viewed feedback using the NXT Device Control Display. They also learned about nMotorEncoder[] and how distance based on rotations is more reliable than distance based on timing (due to battery power).

Challenge, Sumo Robots

A Challenge was issued today involving the following skills: driving straight, counting lines, turning accurately, sonar locating and keeping track of position.

Sumo robots came out to play! These robots were programmed using the NXT-G software.

Meet Bear - The Robo-Dog

This is Bear the Robo-Dog, guard dog of the Builders. Bear will go foward until his ultrasonic sensor tells him that he is less than 25cm away from an object. Then he will stop, back up, bark and wag his tail. Bear has been spotted dancing the Electric Slide with Mrs. Lewis!

Ultrasonic and Light Sensors - Back That Thing Up!

Rickeda continued to learn about sensors - line following was pretty wacky because the robot would not back up (due to the way the wheel was attached). Otherwise, it was a pretty quiet day.

Ultrasonic and Light Sensors

Felicia is on a roll! Today we explored how to stop her robot (affectionately named "Baby Boy") using the ultrasonic sensor, and also used the light sensor to detect a black line.

Exploring the Touch Sensor

Time to explore sensors, starting with the touch sensor. We programmed the robot to move forward and upon touching an object, back up and stop. Tomorrow, let's see if we can use the ultrasonic sensor to do the same thing.

Finally, Working Computers! Book Challenge

Jason saved the day by getting our computers up and running! Today's Challenge: Go around the book.

We figured out that setting the speed of one motor lower than the other would cause the robot to drive around in a circle around the book.

Electric Slide Challenge

After finally getting one computer up and running, firmware was downloaded. Participants started with motors, experimenting with moving left, right, forward and back, then the Challenge ... getting the robot to do the Electric Slide!

Building the Robot

Yesterday on July 1st some of us finished building our robots in preparation for our challenge on the week of August 5th.

Today on July 2nd we were trying to install our software onto our robots but the computers are acting real ignorant and will not let us, but we are still in here trying.