QuickBot - another woody joins the family!!

mindrobots

I wanted to show something a little more "home built" and less expensive for my 4-H Open House, so I turned to the QuickStart and our friend Plywood!!

Playtime for today is over but this is what I have so far:

1/2 6x12 inch sheet of 6mm baltic birch - $1.25
Misc Hardware - $2.00
Quickstart Board - $25
Battery Holder - $2.99
2x BoeBot wheels - $7.90
2x CR Servos - $25.98

Total cost so far: $65.12
Having a plywood chassis? Priceless!!

You can get 2 chassis from each 6x12" sheet of plywood and they can easily be made with hand tools.

Wooden wheels are coming!! I was too lazy and pressed for time to turn on the lathe.
I still need a proper support for the back end - it's a tail dragger.

Next play session, it gets a breadboard, a tail wheel, some wiring and some code.

Ttailspin

A very substantial chassis, That will support the weight of many accesories.
Of course erco is going to mock you for using a Propeller instead of a BS...:)


-Tommy

mindrobots

Thanks, Tommy!

I can always add a BS as an "accessory"!

I want to make a set of wooden standoffs but that also requires the lathe....see above.

I also need to buy some brass hardware....nothing better than wood and brass!!

Martin_H

Looks good, post some videos when you get the skid or caster on the tail. One thing I liked about the 4H design was the inclusion of a sharpie hole. We occasionally use that feature with Scribbler.

mindrobots

Thanks, Martin!

The Sharpie hole would be nice...to do that, I need to accurately place the servos and find the center line and the axle line. I still need to make a skid and this design isn't very good for repeatable builds since the servos are just sandwiched between the two pieces of plywood.

erco

Sweet, Rick! Wooden and just in time for Expo. You coming and bringing it?

mindrobots

Thanks, Erco! I wish I could make it, many factors limit me to UPENE in good old Norwalk, OH. It was mostly just a quickie "what if" for a 4-H meeting.

John R.

Rick;

Nice job! How did the meeting go (or is it still "to be")?

I'm actually looking into adapting the servo robot (I've also got high school kids working on a 7.2 Volt Motor (Stingray wheels) robot) for use in place of NXT using 12Blocks.

For the older kids (freshmen in High School), I've made a very conscious decision to not "hide" any of the gory details of Spin, and having the kids work with dira, ina, outa, etc. This also helps with the leadership council and county supervisors (i.e. budget people) when you can talk about real world "job skills".

For those watching and saying "why", realize that many 4-H organizations don't have time or dollar resources for a "contest level" program (e.g. First, VEX, etc.), and that a Lego NXT set is $300 plus, and gets frustrating quickly. I can probably position a servo robot as accurately based just on speed and time as I can an NXT using it's wheel encoders. Kids generally don't like hearing "that's as good as it gets" or "good enough". They prefer things to work...

Giving them a "Box-O-Parts" is also a nice way for them to explore, and bring some "Inquiry Based Learning" into a robotics program. (4-H STEM is big in the Inquiry methodology.)

mindrobots

John,

It's tonight!! YIKES! This is the county's first big venture into any kind of organized robotics club. Over the past several years, there have been a handful of 4-H kids that have completed the 3 project curriculum that Ohio offers related to robots. Two of them are project books designed around the LEGO NXT (yes, pros and cons to this choice), the third is a Self-Determined project, so it can turn into almost anything robotic. Due to the small turnout, most of these kids have gone on to FIRST teams in their schools and done well but it has hurt the 4-H program.

Tonight, we're having an Open House to see what kind of interest there is. The FIRST teams are coming back and we are going to probably sponsor a FIRST FTC team and possibly a FIRST FLL team for 2012/2013 season competition. That sounds good except it leaves a big empty spot for what is generally considered 4-H season around here. (Jan - August). So I'm going to try and drum up some interest in alternative robotic opportunities with either LEGO NXT projects or self-determined projects.

Since were so new at this in any organized fashion, I wasn't even a 4-H adviser until January, the start-up may be slow and painful. My big concern is to get a good display and demonstration base so we can set up at the County Fair in office and recruit HEAVILY!!! This could turn into more FIRST teams for the school year and hopefully a BIGGER turn out for 4-H projects next year.

We've gone from having a couple parents interested in robotics and helping their kids in previous years to having my wife and I as dedicated Robotics volunteers, a County Robotics committee and the start of a County-wide Robotics 4-H club since January (actually, most of this just happened in March!). My head is spinning and my wheels are spinning with planning and potential opportunities to do some good stuff with the kids and STEM. The FIRST connection will be interesting - they seem to be an active group wanting a new team or two through the 4-H organization.

I like the "Box-o-parts" concept, I like the as inexpensive as possible robot like QuickBot, I like 12-Blocks so the kids don't get scared because it's "programming", I like the S2 and it's GUI in case someone just wants to program and not particularly build something. I like the ability to transition to SPIN or C or Forth or any other language the propeller runs and I like the connections with FIRST if kids want team competitions. I'm not sure we have a big enough base (yet) to really have much team competition at the county level.

There is a 4-h sponsored competition at the state level (this year it's a canine companion challenge) which originally looked to be LEGO based but after looking at the newly posted rules quickly, it could be open to other platforms.

I'll probably be very excited and know a lot more tomorrow morning...or have had a fun evening playing with my robots and my daughter at the University Center!!

Some day, I hope to have a herd of STEM kids like you do!!

Thanks for remembering and asking!!

P.S. QuickBot now has a tail to sit on (ping pong ball) and some wiring - it just needs some quick 12blocks code to replace the servo calibration routine! If I don't run out of time, there may be a movie coming!