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Game ideas for Robot Camp for Kids — Parallax Forums

Game ideas for Robot Camp for Kids

Tru CustomTru Custom Posts: 13
edited 2013-07-13 10:28 in BASIC Stamp
Hi All,
I am an student instructor for a summer camp to help inner city kids gain an interest in Robotics / Electronics and am using the Boe-Bot with BS2. Keeping their focus has become a challenge for the first week. Today I had a class challenge with the Reaction tester from "Whats a Microcontroller and it was a hit! We are working through the Boe Bot book but I need some fun distractions and games seem to be just the ticket. If anyone has any ideas it would be greatly appreciated.

Camp has three more weeks to go Ugg!

Thanks

Comments

  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    edited 2013-07-11 12:37
    Programming Practice: One kid is "programmer" one kid is robot. Have a very limited set of instructions (forward backward, turn left, turn right, # steps) - the "programmer" needs to guide the "robot" through some task.

    Tasks could be things like:
    1) "drive" to cone and return
    2) retrieve object and return
    3) navigate through multiple cones
    4) if you are outside, it's warm and you are brave, figure out how to toss and catch water ballons

    ...or this might be a complete mess and failure.
  • Tru CustomTru Custom Posts: 13
    edited 2013-07-12 05:37
    mindrobots wrote: »
    Programming Practice: One kid is "programmer" one kid is robot. Have a very limited set of instructions (forward backward, turn left, turn right, # steps) - the "programmer" needs to guide the "robot" through some task.

    Tasks could be things like:
    1) "drive" to cone and return
    2) retrieve object and return
    3) navigate through multiple cones
    4) if you are outside, it's warm and you are brave, figure out how to toss and catch water ballons

    ...or this might be a complete mess and failure.
  • Tru CustomTru Custom Posts: 13
    edited 2013-07-12 05:41
    Thanks! That idea sounds like a good idea and I can use this to help them learn about specific codes!!! That will keep them busy for a while, Do you have any more ideas ?
  • prof_brainoprof_braino Posts: 4,313
    edited 2013-07-12 07:16
    This is what I got:

    http://code.google.com/p/propforth/wiki/LittleRobotGameEvent

    This is the initial design ideas for games we want to try on our "cheapest possible robot". We hope to get something worked out for National Robotics Week 2014.

    The robot simple has 2 steppers, so we can move and rotate with millimeter precision. The range finder is good for 1 cm to 4 meters, and about 1 cm accuracy.

    Maybe you could these for inspiration for simple acting games, and let us know what works and what has problems? Then we would make a real game using the actual robots?

    Cheers!
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2013-07-12 16:38
    You can't go wrong with a bunch of older Scribbler robots. All sealed up, ready to go, nothing exposed. Programs much like a Boebot, uses numerous built-in sensors. They're all over ebay for $20-$50.

    http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Parallax-Programmable-Scribbler-Robot-/200938014536?pt=Educational_Toys_US&hash=item2ec8d6c748
    http://www.ebay.com/itm/Parallax-Basic-Stamp-2-Scribbler-Robot-/380639772621?pt=Educational_Toys_US&hash=item589fe5ffcd
  • Tru CustomTru Custom Posts: 13
    edited 2013-07-13 10:28
    All great ideas but the budget has been spent on supplies and this is a free camp for the kids and I am looking for some games like the reaction timer or maybe a game like Simon or a LED pattern game that follows noise, any ideas where they make a simple program and can compete with each other? Thanx, Tru
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