RSU 1's Middle School Robotics Program has started up for the year with the biggest enrollment we have ever seen. Robotics is popular, which shouldn't come as a surprise. Building and programming small, autonomous machines requires a true interdisciplinary approach that engages kids as they imagine, build, problem-solve, test and innovate their creations. Just look at some of the photos posted here; the concentration on the faces of the kids is almost palpable.
We received another generous grant from the Davenport Trust this summer, allowing us to buy a set of new, more advanced robots called the Robomaster S1. They are made by DJI, the same company that has taken over the drone market with a wide range of high quality flying cameras. DJI incorporated a lot of its drone technology into the Robomaster, even though it doesn't fly. The Robomasters are unlike LEGOs in that they are built with nuts and bolts from pre-formed plastic pieces and are not modular. Once they are built, they will remain built. I'm offering second and third year robotics students the chance to build the Robomasters. They are programmed with a version of "Scratch," MIT's block-programming environment. A cool feature of the user interface is the ability to toggle the screen between Scratch and Python, to give users an idea of what their programs would look like in code. The Robomaster has advanced capabilities that will allow kids to experiment with sophisticated programming structures like PID Controllers (proportion, integral, derivative). The Robomaster also has mecanum wheels, consisting of long rollers embedded at 45ยบ all the way around each of the wheels. This allows the robot to steer and move omni-directionally without the need for the wheels themselves to change direction. It's pretty ingenious!
The first-year robotics students are building their first creation out of LEGOs, the "driving base." These two wheeled rovers are the perfect way to explore the foundations of programming. We will begin with giving the robots basic commands, and then move on to collecting data with sensors. Finally, the kids will devise ways for their robots to use the data collected by sensors to make decisions and inform their next moves. These tasks constitute the beginning stages of understanding Artificial Intelligence.
We plan to host two competitions over the course of the year, so stay posted.
