I was digging through some old video files and found this hour-long video of a robot competition I attended, and thought you might be interested to see how much robots have changed (or not?) since then!
If you’ll notice in the video below, there are no Arduinos, no VEX pieces… everything was handmade using basic electronics knowledge. In fact, the two robots that were communicating using laptops that were bolted right onto the robot was actually a really innovative idea!
This video was from an event about 20 years ago… was when I was still teaching engineering at the university, and just getting started teaching kids.
The hour-long version of the video was kind of long and tedious (it was just watching competition after competition), so I slimmed it down to just under two minutes so you could really get a taste for it. Hope you enjoy it!
Arduino Robotics
An “Arduino” is a micro-controller that really makes robotics a lot easier and fun to create. First designed in 2005 by an Italian company, these single boards were originally intended for students learning robotics.
The board consists of standardized connectors, which allow a whole host of interchangeable add-on modules (shields) to be used. It’s like the brains of a computer that you can add inputs (like sensors) and outputs connections (like motors) to.
Arduinos are not limited to student robotics. In fact, you’ll find them anywhere there’s automation, from telescope observatories to weather stations to smart home functions.
We’re going to learn how to transform an inexpensive Arduino board into a fully functioning autonomous robot with sensors, just like the one in the image above. This will take several steps, so watch the videos in order so you don’t miss a thing.
VEX IQ Robotics
The VEX IQ Robotics Competition for elementary and middle school students is open to teams of two or more kids who build a robot to compete in local competitions.
While it’s really exciting and fun, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed due to the open-endlessness, and that’s what we’re going to hep you with. Ready to get started?
cool
Can you post the hour long video please? I would enjoy watching it.
sooooo cool I’ve tried to make a quadcopter but i needed more preparers so I’m going into town today to get some. ive also gone on a homeschooling class for robots called vex we got to program our robots on the computer our team was called t-vex we came 4th but most of the time we where wining our score was 25 and that was the hiest score out of the group. thanks samuel.