Master Driver
Student teams participate in an accuracy competition using LEGO motors to see who can come closest to the finish line.Copyright (left) 2009 Christian Reitter, Wikimedia Commons; (right) 2004 Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052-6399 USA. All rights reserved.
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As part of a design challenge, students learn how to use a rotation sensor (located inside the casing of a LEGO® MINDSTORMS ® EV3 motor) to measure how far a robot moves with each rotation. Through experimentation and measurement with the sensor, student pairs determine the relationship between the number of rotations of the robot's wheels and the distance traveled by the robot. Then they use this ratio to program LEGO robots to move precise distances in a contest of accuracy. The robot that gets closest to the goal without touching the toy figures at the finish line is the winning programming design. Students learn how rotational sensors measure distance, how mathematics can be used for real-world purposes, and about potential sources of error due to gearing when using rotation sensor readings for distance calculations. They also become familiar with the engineering design process as they engage in its steps, from understanding the problem to multiple test/improve iterations to successful design.
Electrical and mechanical engineers design motors that provide mechanical energy in all sorts of machines, everything from electric can openers to pin ball machines to cars and biycles. In the activity, the way the robot motor's rotation sensor is used to measure distance is the same as in other wheeled vehicles.
Computer programming is an important component of many modern engineering designs. As students design robot programs in this activity, they must have a "goal" or "concept" of what the program solution needs to do and how, before they begin writing the code. Next, the process of working on the code and "debugging" it inherently constitutes "revising and improving their designs based on the results of testing." Thus, the thought processes required to code programs that meet problem constraints are similar, if not identical, to the thought processes required for traditional engineering design of physical objects and products.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Explain how an EV3 robot moves by using a motor.
- Explain how motors rotate and enable motion by converting electrical energy to mechanical energy.
- Determine the relationship between the number of rotations of a robot's wheels and the distance the robot travels through experimentation and data collection and analysis.
- Program the LEGO taskbot to move a specific distance.
- Explain the basic steps of the engineering design process.