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.

The second meeting of my Introduction to Robotics classes for the tenth week of the third term was also their second meeting for the third project, the stair ascending and descending robot.

The students at this point, in all of the groups, have been insisting in their designs on stubbornly using wheels, sometimes tank belts to be able to push their robot up the two-step incline that I required. I wish there was more of a variety in design implementation though, such as insect legs.

There was even another suggestion for consideration of having the brain box of the robot just handheld by someone instead of being attached to the body of the stair ascender. They had some wires several feet long that they could use for it, and they believed that the heavy mass of the bulky brain box with its batteries would hinder instead of help their robot up the steps.

I also gave the announcement that it was possible that there would be an egg in a small platform placed on the back of their robot, just to make sure that they would not make a robot that simply barrels its way down the three steps in descent after reaching the top step of the constructed stairs.

I am thinking though that I will just make this as a project for next year’s class, since I announced it too late, when it should have been at the start of the two-week construction period for their robot.

I did warn them though that they would only receive half of their grade from the speed at which their robot ascends and descends, but that the rest of their grade would be from how graceful the stepping up and stepping down is.

The most basic design I’ve seen them use is to have some sort of raised fork lift prongs in front of their robot, that as the robot moves forward, the front of the robot is pushed forward until the front wheels are on the top step.

Then it is either up to the strength of the motors supporting the front wheels, the increased weight in front of the robot or the strength of the back wheels that will force their robot to tilt forward and essentially have “climbed”.

Session 1047 is too bottom heavy to tilt up the first step. Class dismissed.