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This is an extensive long term project where students design and build their own robots. The finished project should run at the push of a button for no more than 45 seconds, and be resettable within one minute. During the time it is running, the robot should "do something interesting"--it is up to the students to determine what constitutes an interesting action.
The students are given two to three months to complete the robot, with multiple smaller assignments, like concept sketches, time management charts, and subassemblies due periodically. Robots are presented in a non competitive atmosphere, in a two hour showing open to the public and press. Robots may be graded at this time by course staff and/or professional engineers, engineering faculty, and graduate students. Other rules:
Encourage students to think creatively and use time wisely. They should have the robots finished well before they are due for repeat testing, and bring enough of any disposable parts to run their robot 50 times at the show. The final robot should be well built and visually appealing to a wide range of audience members. Remind students to think about transportation and set-up. They may have to carry their robots to class through rain, wind, or snow.
All of these items are given or loaned to the students for the duration of the course or project period. Those marked with a * are reusable and must be returned by the students in working condition.
This activity requires a lot of instructor time. Students will have varying skill levels in electronics, computer programming, energy, mechanism design, and project planning. Enough lecture time and assignments must be given in each of these to allow students with no prior background to create successful robots. Course staff must be available to do extensive troubleshooting, especially during the two weeks before the robot is due. Giving extra credit to those students who have functioning robots a week before the show will provide incentive for some students to finish early.
An appropriate room needs to be found and reserved early. The day of the show, course staff should be available several hours early to allow students to set up their robots. Students should be assigned locations in advance. Some course staff should be available throughout the show in a "first aid" area with extra supplies to help students with any last-minute problems, like loose wires or dead batteries.
A few weeks before the show, it should be announced to press and interested local industries. "Judges" from different disciplines should be invited personally. Judging sheets need to be made up with grading criteria. Each judge should be assigned a certain group of students to review.
After the show, course staff should review the judging sheets. Some judges may be overly harsh--or not critical enough. At least one course staff must have seen each robot to weed out the inappropriate judging remarks. Final grades should reflect adherence to rules, reliability, construction, and creativity.
This project is appropriate for the following variations (most are described in the section how to make design projects more meaningful):
This project was received from Will Durfee at the University of Minnesota Department of Mechanical Engineering, and was assigned to students in ME1010:Introduction to Engineering I.
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