It was dusk of the final robotics lesson. Withholding tearful goodbyes, we provided one last challenge for them to accomplish. One last rock to turn over. The robot’s build had already been completed, and the only task left was to code the code. The goal for this intrepid exercise is to rig the robot to be able to push a red brick in a direction whilst avoiding running into walls. With our Lego Spike kits and laptops ready, we dove into this challenging challenge.
Sadly, the programming aspect was too overreaching for their still-developing intellect, as they were all amateurs in the field of programming, and endlessly struggled and toiled over this arduous task, and progress was barely made through the unhappy evening and the pitch dark night.
We helped them correct their mistakes, as we slowly made progress. During this experience, we taught them about an intricate enigma called yaw and its ability to enable the detection of the robot’s orientation, opening the door for the possibility to make the robot turn an exact amount of degrees, significantly improving the effectiveness of the code. However in the end, the challenge was unable to be completed. We were so tantalizingly close, but yet so far from victory. We cleaned the area, and with heavy hearts, bid our final somber goodbyes and parted ways. This summer robotic class was able to teach them about many aspects of robotics and engineering, including gear trains, sensors, and more, and (hopefully) spark an interest in their minds towards robotics.
Volunteers:
(3 Hours): Shaotan Liu, Grace Ji, Junxi Ding, Ian Chiang
(3.5 Hours): Chenyu Jin
Parents on Duty: Li Li (Junxi), Yuqiao Dai (Chenyu)
Reported by: Chenyu Jin
