This Planet Science funded project is a collaboration between the Open University and the Pompey Study Centre. The project aims to assess the potential of well-defined RoboCup Junior robotics challenges to:
RoboCup Junior is an international organisation that oversees various national and international robotics challenges for children aged 7 to 16. National competitions are held each year to select representatives to attend an international competition that is co-located with the international RoboCup conference. In 2003, this will be held in Padua, Italy.
The three main RoboCup Junior challenges are robot football, robot dance and robot rescue.
The robot football challenge is a simplified version of the RoboCup football competition that attracts entries from the leading academic and commercial robotics research laboratories from around the world. The challenge requires children to build and program a small robot capable of playing a simplified form of football. The robots must make use of sensors so that they can identify not only where they are, and their orientation, on the greyscale pitch, but also where the infra-red ball is.
The robot dance challenge is an open challenge in which children must design and build a robot that will dance along to a song of their choosing.
The robot rescue challenge requires a robot to follow a line through a series of small, cluttered rooms and up and down a series of ramps with different inclines, identifying 'casualties' they encounter during their timed exploration of the rescue site.
Whilst these competitions have demonstrated the ability to motivate children to participate in informal activities that relate to design, control and ICT elements of the curriculum, their educational potential has not necessarily been exploited to its full potential.
In this proposal, we aim to develop a set of science based mini-research projects that children wishing to participate in RCJ football and rescue challenges can use to investigate the problem domain in a rigorous way, before using the knowledge acquired to develop their own solutions.
For the football challenge, the mini-projects incorporate data-logging and data analysis activities on the greyscale pitch, using the infra-red ball and using an electronic compass. Children will participate in the process of scientific experimentation and investigation, and then proceed to apply the knowledge so gained as they develop technological solutions to the problems faced by the robot football player.
For the rescue challenge, children will perform a series of experiments on the forces required to drive a robot up slopes with different inclinations and different textured surfaces. Experiments will focus on notions of force and torque, and will include practical investigations on the use of gears and the effects of friction.
Preliminary design for robot rescue experimentation buggy: online or in a zipped bundle
TXR174 buggy: MS-Word
Driving a buggy worksheet (draft): MS-Word or PDF
Light sensor test pad (draft): MS-Word or PDF
RoboLab programming crib sheets (draft): zipped MS-Word docs zipped PDF docs
Science of Robotics Blended Learning Resource Pack
Two-day robot football workshop activity notes (using OU RobotLab software - email robofesta@open.ac.uk for an evaluation copy)
Preliminary design for a pathfinder robot buggy: online or in a zipped bundle
RoboLab Remote Control Activity #1 (activity leader notes - Martian Explorer): MS-Word or PDF
RoboLab Pilot Programming Activity #1 - Basic Programming (activity leader notes - driving around): MS-Word or PDF
RoboLab Pilot Programming Activity #1.5 (draft) - Basic Programming 2 (activity leader notes - car parking): MS-Word or PDF
RoboLab Pilot Programming Activity #2 - Line Follower (activity leader notes): MS-Word or PDF
RoboLab Inventor Activity #1 - Basic Data Logging (activity leader notes): MS-Word or PDF
Bedford SETPOINT Activities:
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