Build your own robot and batlle your fellow students
Robots play an increasingly important role in our lives. Think about robots in a toyshop, welding robots in a car factory and care robots in a hospital. The specific tasks of a robot depends on how it’s programmed. Where some robots are constantly repeating the same tasks, other robots do something dependent on their environment. In this course you will learn how a robot ‘thinks’, how to program a robot and how to make a robot perform a task. You will program a robot by yourself and battle with the other robots!
The University offers facilities in the field of robotics to support your robot design trajectory. Several high tech Robotics labs can be found all over the campus. In the research field of robotics they are especially working on the application of robots. Examples of robot application areas are inspection robots (UAVs, UGVs, UUVS), medical robots (assistance to surgeons, diagnostics) and service robots (street cleaning, service to people).
Example topics for this course:
- Features and functions of robots
- Functional decomposition
- Basic programming
- Reading out sensors
Course aim:
- You will learn about the features and functions of robots.
- You will learn about programming and you will program yourself.
- You will learn to work with sensors and motors.
- You will learn to have a critical view on other tactics on building a robot.
COURSE BLOCKS
The course exists of 6 course blocks. Below you can find a small description of each block. Check the programme page for the division of the blocks in the schedule. Please note that these are preliminary descriptions, and can be changed in the future.
Block 1; Big robots think in small steps
During this block you will get to know your fellow students, during a fun introduction activity. After that you will get a small glimpse in the world of robotics. In 3 hours, you will learn what classifies something as a robot and you will learn the basic principles to program such a robot!
Block 2; The basic principles of programming
During this block you will visit the robotics lab at the university, here you can see some of the robots that are mentioned in the first course in reality! After that you will dive deeper in the coding of such robots. At the end of this course, you will know how to convey to a robot what you want it to do and how can you use logic theory effectively to write code.
Block 3; Program your own robot
This session you will write a code for the robot, that you will use for the rest of the week. Before you start, we will explain everything that is essential for doing this. Namely, the functionality and capabilities of the MBot will be explained, how you can use its sensors, and you will obtain a great understanding of how coding works.
Block 4; Devise your own strategy
To inspire you a keynote speaker will give a lecture on robotics. You can use the information that is given here to devise a strategy for your robot and implement it during this session. You will proceed with programming different functions and strategies that will determine your fate in the tournament.
Block 5; Branding your strategy
This session you will work on our final product, the poster. You will learn how to create such a poster and what components should be added. Also, you will get time to finalize your battle robot and make a short presentation to intimidate your opponents before the battle.
Block 6; Ready to rumble!
This session the long-awaited tournament will take place, where your hard work will hopefully pay off. Each team will try to defeat the others by having the better strategy and code. After the tournament you have time to finalize the poster and reflect on the tournament. There will also be a final big quiz to test your knowledge of robotics.
Course guides
Do you want to follow this course? Go to the registrations page to finalise your stay at Inspire-U!