Robot club
Robots for the fun of it: driving, sensing, vision, behaviours, machine learning and robots that talk to each other. No exam specification, no marking, and games to play at the end of each module.
Start in the simulator0. Python quick start
The Python this club needs, taught on the robot: commands, variables, loops, decisions, functions and lists. An hour, then straight on to…
6 lessons
1. Driving
How BugBot moves: by time, by distance, by turning, and sideways. Why it never goes quite straight, and the rule that keeps it safe.
6 lessons
2. Sensing
Knowing where you are and what is ahead: position and heading, the depth sensor, and reacting to the world.
6 lessons
3. Control
The error, and what to do with it: bang-bang, proportional control, gain, dead bands, and running two controllers at once on a robot that…
6 lessons
4. Vision
The camera: AprilTags and colour blobs as lists of what was found, pixels to bearings, steering by what you see, and searching for what…
6 lessons
5. Behaviours
Programs that never stop: the look-decide-act loop, states, timers, priorities, and turning it all into a brain for the arena.
6 lessons
6. Seeing more
The camera, part two: lines on the mat, tags and LEDs on other robots, following a moving robot, bumps the sensors missed, and predicting…
8 lessons
7. Hands and feet
The attachments: servos, a gripper that holds a ball, a kicker that sends it away, how a ball rolls and stops, and passing to a team mate.
7 lessons
8. Learning
Teaching the robot instead of programming it: data with labels, nearest neighbour, a tiny neural network, learning by reward, models as…
8 lessons
9. Talking to each other
The radio: sending, listening, agreeing what messages mean, asking and answering, taking turns, and sharing what only you can see.
7 lessons
10. Competing
What changes when other robots are on the mat: reading the game, racing the built-in bots, keeping clear, trails, teams, and a run at one…
6 lessons