Makebot

Robots were dreamed up in books and movies. Today, robots are everywhere! They assemble everything from cars to tiny computer chips. They help doctors to perform delicate surgery. They even vacuum houses and mow lawns.

In this activity you are going to transform into a computer engineer and build your own robot! Learn what is possible and figure out what else do you think a robot can do?

Transcript

1. Makebot!
2. Sara Gibbons Software Engineer
3. Computer Engineering ◍ Create web sites ◍ Build mobile apps ◍ Technology in cars, homes ◍ Build electronic devices, even robots! Computer engineers design and develop computer systems and other technological devices.
4. What is a Robot? A machine that is able to sense, think, and act on it’s own Sense: to take in information about what is going on around it. Think: to use that information to select the next step. Act: to do something that affects the outside world.
9. Building a Robot Hand First think about how your hand works. What are the parts of your hand? How is it all connected?
10. You Each get: - Hand to cut out - 4 regular straws - 1 large straw - 5 pieces of string
11. Stuff To Share: - Scissors - Transparent tape - Masking tape - Pencils - Markers
12. Cut your hand out. Look at your fingers, and where the joints are. Now draw joints on your robot hand.
13. Fold each finger at it’s bottom line (bottom joint).
14. Fold the rest of the joints at the lines you drew.
15. Time to add bones. Cut a small piece of regular size straw to go between the joint on a finger. Tape it in place ** Better to keep it shorter than the actual space.
16. Cut a piece of regular straw for each joint. Taping each one in place. ** Don’t tape over the ends of the straw piece.
17. Cut and tape pieces of straw for each finger.
18. When all done each finger should have 3 pieces of straw (bones), and your thumb should have 2.
19. Add the bone for the wrist. Cut a piece of the large straw for the wrist. Tape it in place. ** Use your hand and wrist as a guide to how long the straw should be.
20. Add bones connecting each finger to the wrist. Cut a piece of the regular straw to go between the finger and wrist. ** Leave some space for all fingers, and to pull the thread through.
21. Add a piece of regular straw to connect each finger to the wrist.
22. When all done you should have 5 straws leading from each finger to the wrist.
23. Time for muscles. Take a piece of your string. Thread it through each straw piece for a finger, starting from the top.
24. Thread the string through all straw pieces (bones) for the finger, all the way through the wrist bone.
25. Tape the string in place at the top of the finger. ** Make it easy and tape it to the front of the finger.
26. Grab a piece of masking tape for the bottom of the string to table what finger the string controls.
27. Repeat until you add pull the string through for each finger. Label each finger as you go.
28. Be the computer! Now that you have a robot hand, act like the computer and put it to work! What might you do with it? How would a computer tell it what to do?