Instruction Guide: Group Challenge: The Wave

Submitted by Randy Steele on 19 February, 2012 - 15:23

This lesson ties together all the learning to date. The students must design/modify a robot capable of precise and repeatable forward and reverse movement.  Students must then design and program a choreographed group performance.

The Wave Challenge

Start by showing students this example of  The Wave Video.

Walk students through the following steps:

  • Have student develop and test ideas for a robot designs which move forward and reverse precisely and repeatedly
    • Note: designs with castering wheels often have trouble with this.
      • Designs with fixed wheels (since turning is not required) or skids usually do better
  • Have student develop the overall plan and patterns for their performance
    • The pattern of the performance in the video is only a suggestion, students may develop their own
      • Note:  The video example coordinates the start using a sound sensor - if this has not been covered yet, robots my be started by pressing the orange button
    • Break the patterns down into individual movements
  • Have students develop a means of choreographing the movements of each robot
    • A table or spreadsheet is useful for this step
    • Coordinate the movement of each robot
  • Have students analyze practice runs:
    • Identify sources of imprecision
      • Physical differences between robots such as battery level, friction, rigidity of structure, etc.
      • Software differences such as errors in programming, start/stop coordination, etc.
  • Have students create a video of their final performance

This Assingment Sheet outlines the challenge and grading.

Note:  This challenge may be revisited to incorporate subsequent skills such as sensors, turning, third motors/appendages, loops, etc.  Eventaully, "The Wave" will evolve into choreographed dancing robots.