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Circuits & Robotics
Robots are electro-mechanical devices, meaning that they rely on both electronics and mechanics to do their ‘thing’. If a robot has sensors, it can react with its environment and have some degree of intelligence.
When scientists design robots, they first determine what they want the robot to do. Turn on a light? Make pancakes? Drive the car? Before you start building, you need to figure out what the ultimate goal is that you want your robot to accomplish.
Once you’ve outlined your tasks, then the real fun begins - namely, figuring out exactly how to accomplish the tasks. This is where the real creativity begins! By adding motors, lights, witches, buzzers, and more, you'll be able to make your robot move in circles, follow a flashlight, swim underwater, respond to sound, etc... it's totally up to you.
Here are videos that will get you started with your Robotics!
Going Further...
In this section on robotics, we're going to make over a dozen basic robots that move, hop, skip, jump, dance, draw, wiggle, swim, rotate, and more. Once you've got your robot working, you can add switches and remote controls using the additional videos from both this section as well as the circuits in Electricity.
By putting together motors, switches, lights, buzzers, and light detectors, you can develop a homemade robot worthy of the science fair’s winner’s circle. In addition to interacting with their environment, robots need to be able to move somehow. Robots can move by spinning wheels, turning propellers, moving pistons, grinding gears, or by eccentric (off-center) drive. Let's do some experiments to really bring these concepts alive.
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