A LEGO robotics project with middle-school students
Robotics contains elements from computing, engineering, and
physics. Robots are machines that are directed by computers, using
information from various sensors (touch, light, temperature, ...)
to react to their environment and do what they were constructed to do.
You may have heard
about robots such as the Mars Rover, assembly-line robots in factories
and robotic submarines.
Since robots are machines, they must obey the laws of Physics. If they
don't, they won't work and may even break apart. To build workable
machines one must learn to build mechanically sound structures, and to
use levers, gears, and wheels to move the working parts. These all
work according to laws of physics and are important elements of engineering
design.
Since robots are computers, they must be programmed in some programming
language. The programs steering the robots must monitor sensors and send
orders to motors, so that the robot can react to its environment.
In this project we use the LEGO Mindstorms robotics kit to build
various robots. Programs are written on a PC in a language called
Botcode and downloaded to the robot's microprocessor over an infrared link.
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