Some dates for the last five weeks.

You should be working on your major projects by now.

Some catch-up work has to be done on some topics set last term. There are some presentations required on some Lego NXT more advanced topics. It is proposed this will be done by different people presenting different parts of Lego extensions. This increases our class knowledge base. Some topics will be introduced in class.

The final test will be on 18 November. It will cover several topics including actuators, history and industrial robots. Most of your marks will come from project work.

Presentations of your major projects will be required. About 10 minutes with some surrounding material in a PowerPoint and a demonstration. Questions from the class will be included. These presentations can start as soon as you get finished though the main slot assigned is for 4, 5 November.

On 11, 12 November we have to present some simple lessons to a Youth Guarantee class. These will be the lessons you have already prepared and received credit for.

We have to share our NXT robots with other classes. This means you my have to spend some time setting up. For this reason much of the final 5 weeks will be given over to time to do practical work.

Fourth Term. Mr General cool but ...

There have been some unforeseen accuracy problems with the Mr General robot. It performs OK but movement and sensors remain a calibration challenge.

Because of the difficulties with the Mr General we are allowing a substitute for the major project associated with this robot. You can now have two projects involving the NXT robot. This gives us greater precision and allows us to make use of the Lego NXT's community of examples. If you really wish to deliver a Mr General major project, you may negotiate this with your lecturer. One of the NXT projects should be up to the difficulty of a colour sorter program. The other should involve some data logging. Please see your lecturer as soon as possible about your major projects.

The final date for the projects, in fact all work that has to be handed in, is the 19th Nov. There can be, without permission, no extensions after this.

Piezoelectric motors are actuators too.

Next three weeks

The structure of the following weeks consists of the following topics:

Lectures 1 and 2 :Robotic actuators. For week ending 10 September

Lectures 3 and 4: Industrial Robotics. For week ending 17 September

Lectures 5 and 6: History. For week ending 24 September

Most of the above will be delivered formally with slides and videos.

This will all be testable in the final test.

Students will be expected to research aspects of the above topics too and to deliver some small presentations.

Simultaneous with this the building of the robots up to the stage of simple movement. A typical session will consist of a lecture then some time to explore practical parts of the course.

Up to two of the above sessions will be replaced by Lego robot sessions with some younger students. The dates are not clear to me yet.

Dates to be decided in class.

1. Delivery of example videos on Lego robots.
2. Presentation on a history topic.
3. Delivering sample Lego lessons to peers.
4. Delivery of sample lessons to lecturer.

• You will be expected to pick an actuator to deliver to class with video or negotiated equivalent.
• Also required will be a talk from you about an industrial robot.
• The dates and further requirements will be discussed in class and published on this blog.

Allocation of marks for each of the six lego robot lessons

The written part (15 marks)

1. Step by step lessons points, organised and coherent. 3 marks

2. The order of instructions is appropriate. 2 marks

3. Instructions are correct 2 marks

4. Instructions are clear 3 marks

5. Spelling and grammar are OK 2 marks.

6. Layout is easy to read and attractive. 3 marks

The actual lesson (30 marks)

1. Setting the scene 3 marks

2. Evidence of preparation 3 marks

3. Pacient 3 marks

4. Good at answering questions 3 marks

5. Friendly style and not condescending 2 marks

6. The pace of the lesson is about right. 3 marks

7. Clear instructions 3 marks

8. Checking for understanding 2 marks

9. Refining questions where appropriate 2 marks

10. Feedback and praise 3 marks

11. Recap at the end 3 marks

Talk task on history of Robots

Take a look at the following Wikipedia article and make a five minute presentation on one of the time periods.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_robots

Is this the first reference to robots or intelligent machines?

Abstract

Homer, from the viewpoint of Technology, provides an abundance of technological findings and inventions, either primitive or even modern as well as fictitious future developments. These inventions include descriptions of automata, i.e., machines moving on their own, by means of internal energy, like live beings. Among them are the automatic tripods, the adaptive bellows, the female robots of Hephaestus, and the miraculous ships of Phaeacians equipped with artificial intelligence. In addition to the term ‘automata’, Homer suggests the evolution of machines to automobile machines, to machines with ‘life’. Such a suggestion constitutes a leap in technology. In this way, Homer challenges the Presocratic philosophers to discover the natural ‘roots’ of self-motion, e.g. fundamental elements possessing the necessary energy, so as to be able to move by themselves. He also motivates the classical philosophers to investigate the concepts of system, control, and feedback. Finally Homer addresses to the engineers of the Hellenistic period, in order that his automata be transformed into science and applied technology — the science of Automatopoietice.