[chbot] Which robot kit?

[Mark Beckett]

Andrew
Do you have some idea of just what you expect the robot to do?.

Do you want a platform that you can add to, for some more complex stuff 
for the 15yr old classes?.
Should it be big enough to mount a camera, and be controllable by an 
operator?.

I'm sure that whatever controller you choose, the actual platform needs 
to be fairly robust, while being expandible.
I've seen some platforms that have poor sensors, as they seem to have 
concentrated on the platform design, and sort of tacked on the extra bits.

I agree with the coments about competitions, however some of the other 
ones involving firefighting, picking up balls, and the like tend to 
stretch imaginations, with various methods available to achieve the goal.
If this is an option then using simple to make items (lego or something 
similar) that attach or can be manipulated, may be more useful as the 
students don't need a lot of other skills.

Perhaps the answers to these questions may make the decision easier, 
rather than using xyz because the program does blah blah.


Mark

Andrew Errington wrote:
> Hello chaps,
>
> It's time for me to tap your collective wisdom.  I know I'll get a hundred
> different answers, but right now I have nothing.
>
> First, a bit of background.  I am teaching English in a Middle School in
> South Korea.  The students are about age 12 to age 15.  The school wants
> to make a robot class and has asked me to help.  We will try and use
> English in the class, but we'll probably use a lot of Korean.  It doesn't
> matter if the programming language uses mostly English words, and in fact
> that would be preferable.
>
> Naturally I have no problem hacking on stuff to make it work, but that's
> no good for a classroom of beginners, and I can't solder up enough stuff
> for a class of 15 or so students.  I'd like some sort of kit, or some
> system with a range of plug-in modules and the ability to attach
> third-party or homebrew modules.  And obviously not too expensive.  The
> programming software must run on a Windows PC, and I'd prefer a text
> editor interface to write programs.  I'm thinking Processing might be a
> good environment for this, but I've enever used it.
>
> I want something I can use to make simple robots for solving classic robot
> problems such as line following, obstacle avoidance and simple navigation
> (wheel encoders etc).  Maybe a Logo-based drawing turtle  I am hoping that
> the topic of robots will expose the students to lots of English, and I
> hope they will be interested enough to want to study English more so that
> they can learn more about robots and technology in general.  Yes, there
> are robot and technology companies in Korea, but I want them to look
> outside Korea too.
>
> I'd particularly like to hear from educators on this list, especially if
> you have a system that works (and your advice to avoid things that don't
> work, either specific hardware, or teaching traps to avoid).  I am very
> aware that adopting something like this puts pressure on the teachers (to
> learn how it all works) and the school (to pay for maintenance and replace
> broken parts), but we'll start small and see how it goes.
>
> There are some Korean suppliers, and if you guys make suggestions I might
> find  the same stuff on sale here.  My first step is to define a couple of
> typical robot tasks, buy one kit, and make sure we can all understand it
> and get it to work.  After that we can buy a bunch of kits and put
> together a course and worksheets and let the students play.
>
> Thanks in advance for any advice and information you can offer.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Andrew
>
>
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