Topic outline

  • General

  • PRESENTATION



  • ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION

    The activity consists in running a "relay race" in the sea, with sailboats, based on the ability of the students to answer science questions.


    The race will be between two teams, which will sail at the same time. Each team of students have three sailboats: MB01, MB02, MB03 (three mBots). As the race advances, the program prompts the students for STEM questions on the computer screen: if the team answers correctly, their next boat is allowed to start sailing and continue the race. The team who first arrive at the finish line, will win.



    We will combine different programs and routines in one:


    • Random approach to questions from different subjects.

    • Actions conditioned on events.

    • Movement, lighting effects, chronometer, fan ...

    • Autonomous robots with their program recorded on the Arduino board working as a team with robots linked to a PC program.

    • Communication between robots by sending infrared messages.



    In this activity, each team must answer correctly two STEM questions. If they do so, the first sailboat (MB1) will start to navigate. If they do not give the proper answer, the program will ask them another question. This proceeding will continue until two questions are being answered correctly.


    Time will start to count since the beginning of the program. Time will be reflected in a display located on the third mBot (MB3). This third robot is the one which will cross the finish line.



    The process is repeated two more times:


    • After guessing another 2 questions, the MB2 will advance towards the MB3.

    • Finally, by answering the last 2 questions, the MB3 will advance towards the finish line. When it arrives, the chronometer will stop.



    The main program will run from a PC and will be connected to the MB1 through the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection.


    The MB2 and MB3 robots will work autonomously. Their own codes have to be recorded on their Arduino boards.


    The MB1 will make a connection between the PC program and the autonomous robots (MB2 and MB3) by sending messages to them to execute their routines at the right time.


    The configuration of movements and waiting times has been done according to the route for the regatta, which we can see in the sketch below.


    Any change in the separation distance between mBots means that we must adjust these parameters in the affected code routines.







  • ACTIVITY RESOURCES

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