Robotics

Robotics is an important part of everyday life in today’s world. Robots can be used as toys, to save lives, and to solve problems. Robots were not always a part of our society and are a relatively new addition to our world. Robots use mechanics, electronics, and programming to accomplish tasks. Today robots can do many things and society must decide what robots should do.

This is an introduction course to Robotics; we review the history of robots and the roles of robots in our society. Students will then learn the fundamental components of a robot including mechanics, electronics, and programming. The students will then be introduced to robots to learn how they are programmed and how they perform the commands sent to them through programing language.  To conclude, students will have the opportunity to program virtual robots using a laptop.

• Robots in Today’s World: Discussion about the role of robots in our current life. What is a robot? How many robots do you interact with within a day?What can we use robots for?
• History of Robots: Discussion about how human started using robots.  Share cool fact about history and how robots have evolved.
• Fundamental Parts of a Robot:
• Introduction to mechanics – Explanation of some basic physics on building towers and student build their own tower to understand basic mechanics.
• Introduction to electronics – Students learn about some basic circuits’ concepts and common circuit components such as resistors, batteries, LEDs, servos, motors, wires, and switches.
• Introduction to programming – Using the skills students learned from the lesson, student will be able to build a simple device such a flashlight
• Demonstration of Robot: Students will be able to interact with robots while the instructor demonstrates how to program and operate a robot.
• Programming a robot: Students will have the opportunity to virtually program a robot.  They will use an ultrasonic sensor in the simulator to control a micro servo motor. The sensor will simulate measuring some distance and based on that distance students should rotate the servo.