Student "edition" found at {csi dot journalspace dot com}.

Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

In the first sessions of my Introduction to Robotics class for the fourth week of the third term, the groups were supposed to submit their project proposals for the prospective freshmen tour.

The following are the accepted exhibits, some of which are modified from the existing “pro” challenges of the training software.

First is the artist robot, that will not only draw circles and other complex looped shapes on the paper based on repeating commands programmed in, but as their own innovation, will also write down the initials of the school.

Second is the security robot, which some of the students have said looks like the compressor back of a garbage truck. Besides reading from a swipe card with “bars” drawn in, they will also be using the touch sensor to have the robot respond to a certain number of “key presses” as an additional level of security for the vault to open.

If a different card is slid in and a different number of key presses are made, it will open a back vault.

There is also a viper robot, which has security like the vault but which is attached to a car this time. Just like a vehicle with a burglar alarm, there will be a warning sound if the wrong code is entered.

Fourth is a candy sorter. For this one there are only two colors of gumballs used, but I had the students add a third color and a third bin for the dispenser to point to.

There is also a robotic arm that will be able to distinguish the objects it picks up by color just like the candy sorter. This will also have three drop off points.

Last is the delivery robot, which not only has a treadmill for picking up objects on the road, but also is combined with a line follower to differentiate between the pick up point and the drop off area.

I would have wanted someone to come up with a maze runner or solver, which would have given the students an advance from the other groups since that is also their second project and first competitive task, but no one stepped up to the plate to make one.

Session 969 entered the wrong code and the wrong card. Class dismissed.