Robot for STEM

3D Model

Developing a wheeled robot platform to use in a workshop series for 13 +/- 1 year-olds. This has beed designed to provide a lot of teaching/learning opportunities while being fun and engaging. Features to explore include * Ultrasonic range sensor * Line follower sensor * Thermsitor temperature sensor * LDR light sensor * Potentiometer * Infrared remote control * Geared motors with PWM drive * Programmable RGB LED * Piezo speaker, capable of generating musical notes * 3 50mA outputs, sufficient for external relays * 3 hobby servo outputs * Expansion pins (analog and digital) that can be jumpered to a solderless breadboard

The processor is a MicroMite. It is programmed in a fairly advanced version of BASIC, MMBasic. The advantages of this choice are:

• Cheap chip
• A newbie can interact with the chip/language in immediate mode and get instant feedback.
• The language is almost totally free from the need for housekeeping code before it can actually do something (no need for #Includes, function declarations).