Wednesday 21 March 2018

Robotics With Ms Chowfin


My robotics journey in Ms Chowfin's class has been about discovering the three robots edison, ozobot and the sphero. We also had to research about space to create a mars lander that will connect to one of these robots that we can successfully move around. This project evolved from one simple idea, then it gradually turned into a final design. 

We also researched about mars to help us find out what materials to use for the lander. Here are some facts about mars that we had to keep in mind when designing the lander.

Mars is the fourth planet from the sun and is part of a group rocky planets. Mars also has a nickname called ‘the red planet’ , this is because of the high levels of oxidized iron. It has four seasons which are summer, fall, winter and spring, spring being he longest.Making a mars lander you have to think about the terrain and what materials to use. Using a telescope humans have discovered that there are a variety of rock types. Some common ones are meteorites, basalts, sedimentary sandstone and mud stone. Another factor is the sandstone dunes and high atmospheric pressure meaning that using tyres wont work. This raised an idea of using tracks which with make it easier to go around and over obstacles. Also to have more visibility we have put a 4x4 light bar on the front. Everything is powered by nuclear batteries.

Also we had to pick one robot to base our lander of off. We chose the edison after having a go with the selection of three robots because we can connect lego to it making it easy to build off of. Here is a little bit about the robots we were discovering.


Sphero-There are two versions of the sphero:sphero SPRK and sphero mini.Also available when you get this robot are plenty of different programming and moving and controlling websites and apps. For example Sphero Draw N’ Drive, Sphero Tippsy and Sphero Exile. The robot changes colours and moves with speed across a flat surface. We found moving the sphero was an easy task because of the controls.

Edison-The Edison robot is a robot that is able to be programmed using Ed blocks. This is a very intelligent robot as it can respond to light and sound and is also able to avoid obstacles. You can also program the Edison to follow lines around a surface. Programming the Edison using Ed blocks was hard as we could not figure it out, but then we started to understand the app and it got easier. We did find it cool how you can attach lego to the robot.

Ozobot- This robot is programmed to follow lines. Using a pen you let your imagination run wild and make thick lines over a sheet of paper.Laying the robot down on the lines it will follow them .This is 1 inch in height and is a lot of fun. The only down fall on this one was that we found if you cross the lines over each other it becomes a bit confusing as to where it should go. This also happened when the lines were not thick enough.

Our design process

We first came up with an initial design. Some key elements of this were the tracks as they are durable an able to go on varies terrains. We also had a lot of cameras to capture details of the planet as well as a light bar for extra visibility. 
 

We soon made some alterations as this was difficult to achieve with lego.Going from this we changed the shape to more like a car as it was easier to accomplish. We also got rid of the basket on top as it had no use. The amount of cameras changed as well because we came up with a rotisserie camera which can scan 360 degrees.We also icluded a drill in the back with a camera to dig and find out what is under the surface.

Our hypothesis

Our prototype has this shape partly because it was easier to make out of lego. And also we wanted to cameras to be undercover to protect them from the red dust and weather.

Our Robot design has this shape because… - Our prototype has this shape partly because it was easier to make out of lego. And also we wanted to cameras to be undercover to protect them from the red dust and weather.

Our Robot will navigate the terrain with these features because- Using lights will give us extra visibility. Also we have decided to use tracks because they are durable and have no air in them unlike tyres(which wont work on mars because of pressure).

Our data capturing tools are these because ( think of your first goal)- We have a rotisserie camera on top to video and take photos, as well as on inside at the very front. Also we decided to attach a big land drill on the back so we are able to discover what is under the surface of mars. So we are able to see where we are drilling there is also a camera attached to the drill.

We will navigate this from earth using programming on computers. 

Overall we worked well as a group and created a durable design to navigate mars.