Robots and Physical Computing

In previous post I looked at a few on-line robot simulators (see links below) Programming VEX Code Programming  iRobot Simulator Programming Lego EV3 simulator A recent addition to these is the Edbot Studio Virtual Playground https://studio.ed.bot/;   a preview of simulation technology for  Robots in Schools Ltd  Edbot robots.  Two Edbot robots are shown in a gym; you can select actions for the robots to carry out, including Gangam-style dancing and Head Stands. This is really a preview of the tech, rather than a programming option - at the moment . Robots in Schools Ltd, who make the Edbots, say the Virtual Playground will be part of their Edbot Studio a browser-based Environment to allow both coding in Scratch, Python and JavaScript, of both virtual and real robots. I am really curious to see the full Edbot Studio in action when it is released, but for the moment getting virtual robots to dance and kick is still really good fun. The physical robots -EdBot are...

You don't need to buy a robot to get programming a robot, now there are a range of free and relatively simple to start with robot simulators to play with. Three examples are listed below: - Make code for Lego EV3  https://robotsandphysicalcomputing.blogspot.com/2020/05/programming-robots-virtually-3-lego-ev3.html   - i Robot simulator  https://robotsandphysicalcomputing.blogspot.com/2020/04/programming-robots-virtually-2-irobot.html - Vex robotics Vexcode VR   https://robotsandphysicalcomputing.blogspot.com/2020/04/programming-robots-virtually-1-vexcode.html   It is the last one of these ( https://www.vexrobotics.com/vexcode-vr ) that is the focus of this post and return to hit, after an earlier discussion in  https://robotsandphysicalcomputing.blogspot.com/2020/04/programming-robots-virtually-1-vexcode.html   .  Two of the nice things about the package, apart from being free, are it uses a Scratch-like programming language and it provides a ...

Tinkercad and microbit neural network In a previous post I produced a single neuron based around microbits in Tickercad - see here . To extend this the basic ideas discussed in that the previous post where extended to three microbit joined together. In  other words a network of neurones or neural network. Basic requirements of a neuron are Requirements  - By altering the bias (or w0 in the example), weights change the behaviour of switches changes. -when switch is pressed a variable x1 or x2 is set to 1 depending on which button is pressed and when released it goes to 0.  - if (bias+w1*x1+w2*x2)>=0 then a T for True appears of the LEDs otherwise F for False is shown. So by selecting the weights and connecting the outputs (p2) from the microbits labelled as Red and Green in the image above as inputs to the yellow microbit 'neuron' we can form a neural network. Switches as the inputs and the screen on the yellow 'neuron' as the output of the network showing true (T) or...

For a number of years, I have been playing with robots as a means of developing programming/coding skills with students. The problem is when classes get larger or it is used as part of an assessment there is very rarely enough robots to satisfy all the students  Turner and Hill (2008) . So therefore, the search has been on for a tool that allows robots to be simulated, programmed, ideally web-based, free and simple to use. Lately, a number of interesting tools have arisen. In this series of posts, I am going to look at experimenting with a few of them. In this post, starting by looking at VEXCode VR - available at  https://vr.vex.com/ . VEXcode VR  https://vr.vex.com/   from VEX Robotics ( https://www.vexrobotics.com/ ) is a simulator and programming tool for their Scratch-like programming tool VEXCode - at the time of writing is free. If you can do Scratch this is a nice next stage, consisting of the simulator (playground) and the programming environment (s...

Experimenting with an Aldebaran NAO robot - nicknamed Smurf - to get the robot to deliver a short welcome. The video below show the robot being simulated using the code in figure 1 and then shows the 'Smurf' actually carrying out the routine (the bottom video show this bit without the simulator). The only difference in the code on the simulator and the one running on the actual robot was an extra command was added at the start of the one on the robot to only start when the top of the head is tapped. figure 1. Choregraphe program for the routine. All opinions in this blog are the Author's and should not in any way be seen as reflecting the views of any organisation the Author has any association with.