Topic outline
- General
- Benefits of upgrade to high level robot
Benefits of upgrade to high level robot
In this lesson, we explore the core differences between mid-level and high-level robot, complete with functionality differences as well as benefits of the upgrade.
The lesson is designed as a comparison of the two levels. The purpose of this lesson is to give students an insight into what they can expect from the upgrade and how the core approach to building and coding will change.The end goal of the lesson is to give students a grasp of the new functions of the upgraded robot and how they can be used in real life situations.
- Robot assembly and wiring
Robot assembly and wiring
As an overview lesson in this module, we will look at the assembly of a high-level robot. As we start from scratch, we will list and discuss all 3D printed parts as well as every other part or sensor that needs to be fitted.
We designed this lesson as a step-by-step guide to building the robot, which can overlap with the previous lessons, all the while supposing the students are familiar with the themes of level 1 and level 2.
In a similar fashion, we explore the wiring of the sensors and microcontrollers of the robot, as well as line out core code that we continue to explore in the next lesson.
- Adding sensors and actuators
Adding sensors and actuators
The first practical lesson of the course will be an overview of additional sensors and actuators needed to perform the upgrade.
We will list and explain the additional sensors, their inner workings as well as wiring needed to add functionality to the high-level robot.In this lesson, we will focus on all the parts added to the main chassis and ignore the gripper arm, as that is a lesson on its own.
- Adding the gripper module
Adding the gripper module
During this lesson, we will discuss what functionalities we can expect from our gripper module, how to apply it to our robot.We will learn which parts we need to 3D print, what their function is. We will also list the additional parts needed.
Lastly, we will look at servo motors, their core principles, and usage in our project.
- Functionality testing
Functionality testing
The final lesson of the course, it provides the cumulation of what we did in all previous lessons.
We will learn how to write and upload basic code, that will help us test all the functions of the robot.
We will also explore some code examples that will give students the foundations needed to develop their own code and functionalities of the robot.At the end of the lesson, the students should have a working robot with basic functionalities coded in.
Chapters:
· Exploring the core code for high level functions
· Uploading the code to the robot
· Where to go next?
All the available code for the MER robot is available on GitHub. GitHub is a website and cloud-based service that helps developers store and manage their code, as well as track and control changes to their code. All other users can download and browse the code, as well as write and add their own code.
The MER repository is available at the following address: https://github.com/tomazf/MER_robot
