I love watching Battlebots. As an engineer I really enjoy seeing the design and strategy of each bot. I was delighted to find a box from VEX at my front door recently. Luckily I opened it right away (I thought it might be parts for a FIRST team) and found a Minotaur set. Minotaur is one of my favorite bots in the show. This bot from Brazil and is a joy to watch. Its spinning drum eats through other bots. Follow me past the break to see what I thought of this building set.
It’s hard to deny that “STEM” is the new buzzword in education. We need more STEM education! With the focus on this buzzword, schools are scrambling to figure out how to put STEM classes into their curriculum.
Robotics for me was the hook; it got me to explore, to question, to discover.
One of the most common ways schools are “adding STEM” is introducing robotics classes. I have seen countless schools that have introduced VEX IQ or LEGO MINDSTORMS as a way to address the need for STEM. These classes are “teaching” robotics, which as an engineer I don’t really understand.
So a few weeks ago I got a VEX IQ set. I have been working on mobile robotic arm. This video showcases the drive base for the robot. I have it working via remote. All the software is written in RobotC. This is just step 1, the arm will be the next challenge, but just wanted to share what I have been doing!
You can learn more about VEX IQ here and join the discussion forum!
Many of the people that follow my blog know I do a lot of robotics. I build robots, I write software for robots, and I mentor/coach FIRST teams. If you know anything about FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), you know January and February are busy months. This is the build season. Between my research and mentoring a team, I have almost no free time. I do have a few projects that need to be posted and I will try and get to them as soon as I can. I have some updates on my Glow with the Show ears, APRS on a Beaglebone, NXT Simulink Tutorial, and VEX IQ.
In case you were wondering what this year’s FRC game is, see below!
Milluzzi Labs 