Robots at Pacheco!

This last Wednesday we had the opportunity to visit the kids at Pacheco elementary once again. We came armed with a bucket of neat solar robot kits that teams of students would get the opportunity to play with. Kids could chose from a number of models, such as a race car, windmill, airboat, or walking dog.

We started out by reviewing the basics from last week and then went over the different sources of power for an electric motor. We gave a quick explanation of how electric motors work, then set the kids loose to build their robots.

My group built the airboat and had a ton of fun using the lamps we brought to drive it around the sink. A few other groups built the walking dog, race car, and boat as well. The kids were having a blast watching their robots cruise around the room!

After everyone had successfully built a working model, we had the kids tear everything down and then build a race car for each group. Once everyone had finished, we took all of the cars outside in the sun and raced them down the sidewalk. The kids absolutely loved this part, and I had a pretty good time myself. It was really funny to watch them all running down the road screaming at their cars to go faster.

Afterwards, we packed everything up and headed out, another successful lesson completed! This coming week we'll be doing the same lesson with a different group of kids. Looking forward to it!

Pacheco Elementary Labs and 3D Visualization Update

Hi everyone,

Today was our second of 6 robotics demos for the kids at Pacheco, and things went great! We have done lab #1 both weeks for different classes so far, and the kids love it. The lesson goes something like this:

We show up, the kids come in from recess, and Mrs. Banfield introduces us to them and tells them that we are there to talk about robotics, at which point every kid in the class gasps "OHHHHHHH ROBOTS!!!".

From there I start off with a powerpoint that shows Wall-E bumbling around on the screen collecting balls, and we split up into groups to talk with students about what the know and what they would like to learn about robots. I walk back to the front to ask them questions about better known robots like Roombas, and then Billy gets up to talk about one of the robots that was sitting around in the LAIR. After Billy talks about the brains, arms, and eyes of that robot, we split up into groups again to let the kids design a robot of their own on paper.

After that the fun begins. Tyler and Sara have a competition to see who can build a Lego robot the fastest, and then we ask the kids what they think these robots do. We tell them that the robots brains were programmed to follow lines, so when you lay white masking tape on the black carpet, the robots know how to stay on track. We then demonstrate by allowing each kid to lay down a piece of tape so that a track is made. We put the lego robots on the track and the kids watch as the robots follow the lines (and sometimes collide with each other). After that, we get back into groups to talk about what they learned today, and then I head back up to the front to introduce the solar robots that we will be playing with next time we meet them.

The kids are so enthusiastic about the lesson, and Mrs. Banfield is right there with them. Hopefully we can keep up the great work at Pacheco elementary in the next 4 weeks!




On the 3D visualization front: Jane, Sara, Brent, and I skyped with John "Pathfinder" Lester, who works at ReactionGrid developing 3D environments with which people can model things. He told us about some software (Unity3D and Jibe) with which we can carry out our project for our archaeologist friends. Unity3D is a video game development software that seems to be just what we need. I plan on getting some bigger projects up and running so that in the end, we can have a map of malta with specific sites that can be zoomed into. On clicking a site, a 3D textured version of it will pop up (hopefully with a 3D model of the cistern in it) that will have triggers that bring up descriptions of the area. More from me later!

Winter Break Progress

Over winter break I had two tasks. The first task was to do some investigation into Google Earth's ability to display our findings. The second was to get everything prepared for our labs at Pacheco. The progress I made towards these two projects is summarized below:

Google Earth

I'm convinced that Google Earth will be a sufficient tool for sharing our results. It has every feature that we need: html formatting, easy to link to files from databases, image/video embedding, descriptions of each site, underground depth/maps. Additionally, it is commonly used software, making it easier to spread our findings.

That said, there are a few things that I haven't figured out yet. I don't know how to share a google earth file so that multiple people can edit it at once (aside from e-mailing the other person the file). I think the program has this capability, but I haven't figured out how it works yet. Another problem is that when you create a map of a place below ground (cisterns are below ground) the polygon won't show up on a map embedded into a website. The last problem is that I can get an embedded video to work on MY copy of google earth, but can't get an embedded video working in an embedded blog post like this one. Anyways, problems aside, here is a little sample that I made up.

If you have the Google Earth plugin installed, you should be able to view this. The camera should pan to my house and you will see some information about it when you click it. If you double click "Erik's house", it will zoom in to street view. Additionally, you may click the green polygon on the ground to see an outline of my underground lab, and again, some information on that. As far as I can tell, this is what we need for the project.

Pacheco Labs

I received a copy of the powerpoints and lecture notes from last year, and have been discussing everything with Chris, Jane, and the teacher from Pacheco (Jill). Looks like we're all going to meet up as a group on Wednesday at 12:10 to talk about the curriculum and maybe do a run through of the first demo that we will do for Jill's class on week 2. The first demo is a discussion of robotics, engineering, and then a demo of a line follower robot.

Over break I borrowed a Lego Minstorms kit from professor John Chen to make a line following robot. I got him working, but just barely. I was testing him out on brown cardboard with black electrical tape and poor lighting, and Jill's classroom is black/grey carpet so we will need to use masking tape. I will be going to her classroom on Wednesday afternoon to test out this one. The bots that we will be using for the week 4 & 5 demos will be borrowed from Jill, and the bots for the week 6 & 7 demos are in the LAIR, but need some repairing. I'll get to that in a week or two. That just about wraps everything up for now. More from me later!

Oh, and here are a few bad photos of the bot that I made for the first lab.

Erik's Pre-Trip Learning Goals

Using what I know so far about ICEX, I have developed a few goals that I would like to have accomplished by the project's end. I'm sure that these learning goals will be revised as the quarter progresses, and I accept that there will be events that change my aim along the way that I have not yet considered. With that said, my pre-trip goals are the following:

I would like to gain enough knowledge of robotics and computer science principles to become a more well rounded systems engineer. In other words, I would like to be able to understand complex processes and systems that involve a variety of engineering disciplines. This is not a goal that can be perfected, but rather one that must be continuously worked towards. It will be difficult, and it does not end once ICEX is over (in fact, it never does)! I think it's safe to say that by partaking in the ICEX project, this is a goal that everyone on the team is working towards. I guess I'm in good company!

I was assigned two sub-projects to complete along the way. These projects are developing an interactive Google Earth (or other) copy of our findings for documentation and educational purposes, and keeping track of the curriculum that we will share with the kids at Pacheco Elementary and any other schools that we may be working with. My goal is to educate as many people as possible such that they will be interested in what robotics has to offer. Hopefully, if we do our job at Pacheco, a handful of the kids will use our labs as an incentive to work harder in school so that they can do the same things in their future. While the details of the Google Earth database are not as clear as of yet, I hope that the outcome of this sub-project will be just as beneficial.

Just like every other human, I have a knack for adventure. Malta will feed that knack! I'm ecstatic to be on another side of the planet learning about things that I have never encountered! When I'm on my deathbed and I ask myself if I lived a complete life, this is one of the things that I will use to convince myself that I did. Happiness is something that everybody strives for, and this is the best way that I can think of to be happy. My goal is to make the trip as fulfilling as it can possibly be; to jam it with adventure, to have a mind opening experience, and to bring back as many stories as I can cram into my brain.