Howdy fellow roboticists. So, I'm trying to put together a robotics workshop based on a modified "Start Here" bot. I want to give elementary and high school students in my area the opportunity to do some hands-on robotics and coding. I live in a rural area where there aren't a lot of opportunities in that vein. It'd be part of my college's Science Outreach Club. If any deep-pocketed robot-loving pro-STEM individual wanted to help with kit costs, the link to follow would be here:
gofundme.com/mobilerobotics
Thanks for all you do, LMR.
So, the basic run-down for
So, the basic run-down for all you Robot Makers is that I am a part of the Science Outreach Club at my local college. We offer hands-on STEM experiences to students in a rural area who otherwise might not have had the opportunity. Having a passion for robotics, I want to introduce a robotics lab. It would basically be the “Start Here” robot (www.letsmakerobots.com/start) with a few minor modifications. To keep cost as low as possible without sacrificing the basic function, it will be done with picaxe 18 chips on 18x high power boards. Additionally, it will be using the much cheaper ultrasonic rangefinder rather than the Sharp IR. Each component would be permanently affixed to flat lego pieces so as to allow the kit to be assembled without tools, to incorporate younger roboticists. I’ll color code my leads and chips so that students can just plug everything and be good to go. For younger students, the chips would already be loaded with the program and older students will get the opportunioty to write some of their own code - I will probably have a rough skeleton of the code for them to flesh out. Additionally, should we raise enough funds, we could add additional components or create challenges like maze navigation or line following. The kits would remain with the club so that we can reuse the lab with multiple schools and groups. The $400 listed on the www.gofundme.com/mobilerobotics page basically covers the components - incidental costs would likely be covered by the club’s general fund, or club members. We operate as a non-profit through the college, and all funds we recieve go directly to Science Outreach activities. If you’d like to see my rough assembly notes, or a 3d model of a finished bot, both are posted as updates to the page. Thanks again!
I should also specify, we
I should also specify, we don’t charge schools or groups for our demonstrations and labs - we do our own fundraising however we can.
Model Link
I can’t embed it, else I would.
https://skfb.ly/CSKZ
I’m curious, how much does
I’m curious, how much does the high power PIC board cost? I like the PIC family, but Arduino nanos can be bought inexpensively on eBay. And Arduinos are becoming a standard.
The board and chip together
The board and chip together comes to about $16 dollars on robotshop, I believe. I chose PIC because I’m more accustomed to it, and I think it’s a more approachable programming language for first-timers.
