Say Good-Bye to the Summer

Well, the waning days of summer weather are upon us, school has begun (even for those of us who do it at home), and all the summer library robot classes are behind me. I had great fun preparing and presenting to so many area kids. I hope it inspired at least some of them to consider a career in engineering or science. Or in the very least, I hope it's given them motivation to break out their boxes of LEGOs.

There is talk of me teaching one or two encore classes this fall, so watch this space.

In the meantime, I have LEGO and robot-related material to share, to tide y'all over till next summer. Stay tuned....

7 Minutes of Terror

The Mars Curiosity rover is due to land on Mars on Sunday, August 5th. At 2000 pounds, it is the heaviest and the most sophisticated rover ever sent to another celestial body. But that's not the half of it. Apparently it's too big for the traditional bouncy landing that rover twins Spirit and Opportunity enjoyed, and the Martian surface is too dusty for an Apollo-style jet-assisted touchdown. So how do they plan to do it? Watch the educational and entertaining NASA video below to find out!

Visit The Official NASA Website for all the exciting details!

Tic Tac Toe-riffic!

The debut of the Tic Tac Toe Robot class went remarkably well, especially considering that half the hour was spent doing math!

The robot itself is composed of a "bridge" section that rolls across the two walls, a car that rolls across the bridge, and an arm that can be raised or lowered, in order to pick up and place game pieces. The car also has a color sensor, which it uses to detect the presence of game pieces.

For more great pictures of the robot, please check out my wife's blog!

When I brought it into the classroom, the kids swarmed all around me, ogleing the automaton and asking tons of questions. It was a great way to get their attention and get them excited about the class.

Each square on the 3x3 grid is represented by an odd number 1-17. In fact, if you were to write the numbers on the grid, you would get a magic square, in which all rows, columns, and diagonals add up to the same number. I did this because I originally planned to make the robot a lot smarter.

The robot uses light sensors to communicate with two other NXT robots, each of which is operated by a student. The students take turns using their robot's buttons and screen to select a square to move to. Their NXT then converts the number of the square into light pulses which are detected by the Tic Tac Toe robot and converted back into a number. This was a great excuse to teach the students how computers use binary numbers and how to convert between binary and decimal.

Having received its command, the robot then moves to the specified square and verifies that it is empty. If it's not, it returns home and requests a retry. Otherwise, it grabs the next available piece and places it in the square. It then returns home and waits to receive a number from the other NXT intelligent brick.

Originally, I was going to make this a student project, but it ended up being way too complicated. Some of the challenges I faced included the arm design and the transmission of numbers using binary. This is by far my most complicated NXT project to date!

Searching for inspiration for this year's second class topic, I drew from the video below, which a co-worker forwarded me. Well, you should watch it and be amazed, but the short of it is that the guy in the video built a crane-like Mindstorms robot and equipped it with a drill bit (the only non-LEGO part). Then he modeled a 3-D head in AutoCAD or something like that and somehow interfaced it with the robot. The software then "told" the robot where to drill. The program needed hours to complete, but with time-lapse photography, you can see the model take shape in just a couple minutes!

Sometime soon, I'll post a video of my own, for you all to enjoy.

Summer Classes UPDATE

Just thought I'd give an update on how the summer classes have been going so far.  Turnout was excellent at Hayden Library, where about 30 kids showed up to build and watch the demolition robots.  It got a little raucous, as the field was reduced to only two robots, and the kids started chanting for their favorite.

I got a smaller crowd in Liberty Lake, since nearly half of the kids who had been signed up failed to show.  I feel bad for the ones who wanted to come, but had been turned down after the list filled up.  But after the class, I had several kids and parents come up to me and ask where to purchase the robots and how to get more involved.  I'll have to post something on this blog about all that....

My son and brother-in-law both came to help out, and I appreciated having them there.  Can't wait to do it again!

Right now, I'm working steady on the Tic Tac Toe program and presentation.  Hopefully it will be a keeper....

Please see my previous post for the remaining class dates.  I have already committed to encore preformances in Liberty Lake, later this fall.

Summer LEGO Classes

It's almost Summer again! And that means it's time for the annual tradition of holding free LEGO robot classes at area libraries.  Two years ago, as part of the INCH homeschool co-op that we attend, I taught a class on LEGO NXT Mindstorms robots.  That summer, I was asked if I could do one class at Hayden Library (Idaho).  It was so fun for the kids, as well as myself, that I added Liberty Lake to my itinerary and turned it into an annual occurrence.  This year, I will also be visiting Post Falls Library for the first time!

One or two hours is nowhere near enough time to learn how to build and program these robots, so I can do little more than whet the kids' appetites.  Each class lasts 60-75 minutes and includes a brief, educational slide show, a hands-on team activity, and watching the robots compete in some sort of a challenge.

Most of the robots I use are borrowed from Discover Technology, a non-profit science education organization in Post Falls, which promotes science and technology education to area kids.  They also organize summer camps and have sponsored teams in the FIRST LEGO League local and national competitions.

If you live in the area, and have children ages 9-14, check out the schedule below.  Hope to see you there!

"What is a Robot?" & Demolition Derby
Monday, June 18	Hayden	10:30-11:30AM, Noon-1:00
Saturday, June 23	Liberty Lake	10:30-Noon
Wednesday, July 11	Post Falls	4:00-5:30PM
"What is Binary?" & Robot Tic Tac Toe
Friday, July 13	Post Falls	4:00-5:30PM
Monday, July 23	Hayden	10:30-11:30AM, Noon-1:00
Saturday, August 25	Liberty Lake	10:30-Noon

The Robotic Forklift

I built this forklift shortly after we got our first NXT set.  It was my first original robotics project, even if the rover part was built using the instruction manual.  :)  For a long time, I had a long and awful unedited version on my YouTube channel, but I finally got around to recording a new narrative and shortening the clip to something more tolerable.

The algorithm for following the oval track is something I've used repeatedly and probably deserves a little explanation.  I made a great slide show that talks about it, which I plan to link to soon.

Detecting when a block gets loaded was pretty tricky, since the blocks were too light to extert enough pressure on the touch sensor's button.  I had to get a little clever with levers, to increase the sensitivity.

You'll note at the end of the video how the robot was unable to recover when it missed a block.  I might have been able to use an ultrasonic sensor (or two) to guide the prongs of the forklift more accurately.  As it was, I had to place the blocks around the track just right, in order for the robot to get to them.

In the coming weeks, I'll be adding more fun videos of projects past.


Here is a recently posted video of a guy in Brazil, who uses a real-life forklift to perform the extremely delicate task of dropping a coin into a bottle.  Extremely impressive, but it makes me wonder what's next?  Washing dishes with a back-hoe?

Constructing the Ultimate Millenium Falcon

OK, so this has nothing to do with robots, but I saw this online today and wanted to share.  Apparently, a dude named Francisco Prieto has way too much time on his hands and not only constructed the +5000-piece Ultimate Collector's Millenium Falcon on a computer, but he produced a stop-motion video, showing the entire process.  All things considered, it's pretty impressive, kid!

Now, Where Was I?

Wow, how time flies! When I first started this blog, I thought I would have the time to keep up with it, but work, family, and various projects kept putting it on the back burner.

But, for the past year or so, I've continued teaching Mindstorms classes at area libraries, and also held monthly robot club meetings at our home. In the coming weeks (months???), I'll be posting videos, pictures, and tips on making your robots smarter and more fun.

Stay tuned!