10 MORE cool things to do with Cubelets

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1 MODULAR ROBOTICS EDUCATION 10 MORE cool things to do with Cubelets Using the KT01 Cubelets This activity plan includes 2 parts 1. Challenges that may be satisfied with single sense, single action robots. Of course there s always the option to add more to your robots, but simple solutions exist using fewer Cubelets. 2. Additional Cubelets challenges that tackle harder problems or add more Cubelets In the final section of the document, you will find some suggested solutions. Treat these as possible solutions, not an exhaustive list - there are many solutions to every challenge. These pictures aren t meant to limit you, just to give you some ideas. Try to come up with your own robot first, and if you do something different, be sure to let us know! These activities have no suggested ages different challenges may appeal to different people for reasons having nothing to do with age. If you re brand new to building with Cubelets you may have more initial success starting with simple single sense (black Cubelet) single Action (clear Cubelet) robots. Think about robots for a minute: Robots are devices that can sense, think, and act. Robots are different than other machines blenders and toasters and vacuums rely on our ability to sense and react in order to operate them to produce food, clean the way we like, and turn on and off. Robots are different because they can sense and turn that information into action without human interference. This is why robots often do jobs for humans. Get familiar with Cubelets: Black Cubelets have senses, like our eyes and ears. Clear Cubelets are the action parts of the robots that do things. And colored Cubelets are the thinking or logic parts of the robot.

2 Part I: Smaller robots that know things These robots can be made with one sense and one action, or can be made more complex by using more Cubelets. Several of these robots will use Action or Think functions found in the KT01 kit. Challenge 1. Make a robot that can help you escape a dark room, using at least one Think Cubelet 2. Now can you do it without a Think Cubelet? 3. Now, imagine yourself in a dark room you don t know where the door or lights are and you have Cubelets, but not all of them. Someone has stolen your Flashlight and Brightness Cubelets! Can you still assemble a robot that will help you find your way out of the room? Hints and Suggestions How can a robot help us accomplish this? What Action Cubelet(s) do you most want to use? What senses will be most useful and why? What Think Cubelet(s) will you use and why? How will your robot work to get you out of the dark room go test it in a dark space! You might want a different sense than you were using in challenge 1! If you had no flashlight, didn t know where the lights were, and had no robots, what would you do? How could you find walls or a door? What will this robot need to SENSE in order to find a wall? What s a good action Cubelet to use so you know when the robot is sensing the wall? 4. Make a wall following robot using only three Cubelets 5. Make a robot that knows where the edge of the table is this can be done using only three Cubelets! What did you use in challenge 4 to sense the presence of a wall? What does this robot need to sense in order to know where the edge of the table is? What action is needed? It may matter not only to have the Distance sensor facing down, but to have the sensor circles oriented vertically in line with the robot (rather than horizontally) so that one circle heads out over the edge before another. What does this mean about how the distance sensor works?

3 Part II: Bigger Robots that know things These robots may use multiple senses, multiple actions, or even more than one Think Cubelet! Several of these robots will use Sense or Think functions found in the KT01 kit. Challenge 6. Make an edge sensing robot that uses the Minimum Cubelet 7. Make a Maze solving robot that can use either the left hand or right hand rule 8. Make a robot that can find it's way out of a curved wall maze. The robot will need to turn when it comes into contact with curved walls Hint What sense did you use to see the table edge in challenge 5? What direction should that sense look at? What other sense could you use? if is listening for a low number how can you give the Minimum Cubelet a lower value than the sense you re using to see the table? How can you attach 2 senses to the Minimum Cubelet and still have it between those senses and the Drive Action? It might help if the Minimum cubelet was listening to one sense as the lowest value and then another sense becomes the lowest value as this robot sees the edge. Hint 6: You may need to account for weight and stability. The left hand rule says put your left hand on one maze wall and keep your hand on the wall until you walk your way out What action(s) will you need to include? What senses? Will it need Think Cubelets? 9. Make a crane robot using the minimum Cubelet and a piece of string or ribbon What senses will work best? Why? What think Cubelet do you need? What Action will be uniquely suited to wind an attached piece of string up to the top? 10. Make a driving man robot What will the robot need to sense? Does the robot need more than one sense?

4 Some possible robot solutions No Peeking! Now that you ve built some of these robots, you may be interested in some solutions we ve come up with. For each challenge there is more than one way to make the Cubelets robot we picture, and there may be multiple robots we don t picture that satisfy the challenge. This is not an exhaustive solution list, just something to look at if you get stumped. So, no peeking before you try your hand at building cool robots! 1. A robot that can help you escape 2. Escape a dark room, a dark room, using at least without a Think Cubelet one Think Cubelet (Battery Knob Flashlight) 3. Escape a dark room 4. Wall Following Robot without a Flashlight Action (Drive forward, Distance (Battery Distance Speaker) facing to the wall) 5. Simple Edge Sensor 6. Complicated Edge Sensor

5 7. Maze solving robot 8. Spiral or Curved Wall Maze robot (courtesy of Chris Clay at The Mind Lab in New Zealand) 9. Crane Robot (courtesy of Richard Born) 10. Driving Man Robot (courtesy of Richard Born)

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