​This week was another big week in Capalaba Robotics Club! In this lesson we learnt how to code a robot to follow a black line and how to use the Ultrasonic sensor.
 
Firstly we looked at how a robot “sees” a line compared to a human. A robot can only see the line if it is constantly comparing the line against the floor, so moving forward in a zigzag. Next we moved on to learning how to code the robot and testing our code on black circles taped to the floor. It was a difficult challenge, but everyone got the hang of it in no time!
 
The second part of the lesson was learning all about the ultrasonic sensor. Firstly, the participants attached the ultrasonic sensor to their robot and we had a discussion about what it does, which is the robots eyes. The challenge was set that participants must code their robot to move until the robot senses that a wall is 20cm away. Which was a lot of fun! Participants figured out that not only will the robots stop at the wall, they will stop at any obstacle in the robots way. The next challenge was to code their robot to sense when the wall was 20cm away and then move backwards.
 
Everyone did a fantastic job of staying on task and getting their work done. This is the last lesson that we will be learning about the skills needed for the Sumobot competition.
 
Next week is the beginning of the sumobot challenge. They will be constructing and testing their code ready for the last week of Robotics Club, which is when the challenge will be held.

​Week four of robotics was a big week! This week was learning about how to use the colour sensor and using display blocks.
 
We started the lesson with attaching the colour sensor to the Lego mindstorm. The participants were very excited to build something new on to their robot. Next we discussed the different types of mode the colour sensor can view and what mode we will be using in the lesson.
 
The challenge for the lesson was to move in between different coloured lines and make them stop on a certain colour. The robot had to be coded to differentiate between black and yellow, so we started with coding the robot to ignore the black lines and continue until viewing a yellow line. The participants were very excited to see their robots go from one end of the room to the other and back again stopping when there was a yellow line.
 
Next we focused on display blocks. A display block is used to display an image or text. The second challenge of the day was to display “hello” on the robot and then display an image. Everyone had a great time choosing the image that they wanted to display.
 
Well done to everyone for having such a great lesson!
 
Only two more weeks until it is the Sumobot competition.

​This week in robotics, we learnt all about how to code the robot to turn. Turning is an integral part of moving around the sumobot ring to avoid other contestants. We started off learning how to use the port view on the Lego mindstorm to see how far we need to code the Robot to turn. Participants found that sometimes the robot doesn’t turn exactly with 90 degrees, it needs a higher value depending different factors.
 
After learning how to view the correct amount of degrees needed for turning, the challenge was to code the robot to move around two different size squares on the floor. The participants had a fun time testing, coding and re testing their robot to ensure that it moves around the square correctly.
 
Everyone had a great time and we thoroughly impressed with themselves with their problem solving skills.
 
The countdown is on… 3 weeks until the sumobot competition!