The new robots are here and moving an object!

Firstly, Dan ran a discussion on the correct terms for LEGO pieces, popular names the students called pieces were "thingies" "holey thingies" "the flat thing with bumps" as well as "we don't call them anything!" Correct terms included plates, the bumps are studs, cross axle, bricks, beams. There are also LEGO rubber bands which was a surprise to many of us! We will be using the correct terms from now on.

We then went over what we learnt last week and discussed the various programming blocks and what they do, such as the move steering block which can be be turned on for seconds, degrees or rotations and the steering parameter can be used to control the direction the robot moves in. This block also has the power parameter from -100 to 100 and controls how fast the robot moves with the negative numbers making the robot move backwards.

For this weeks challenge of moving an object from one place to another we needed to use the medium motor block as well to move the arm at the front of the robot to come down and hold the object while moving it and releasing it at the desired location. The modes are the same as the motor block except without the steering

The new robots arrived and there was an excited frenzy of opening boxes, building and labeling going on! everyone worked really well together and we almost finished building 4 more robots. We will finish these off during lunchtime on Monday for anyone from the robotics club who wants to come we will be in the usual room.

The rest of the students worked on moving an object from one place to another, which we will need to be able to do for the competition.

As well as having some fun on the practice table with the remote controlled robots. See you all next time for the gyro sensor!!!