Oh my goodness, did you see the Robot on Mouser's robotics challenge? I have to be honest, I have done many things in software but almost nothing in hardware. I have coded robot brains to do things like clustered object avoidance, but never put it in actual hardware. I have wanted to since my second semester, I just never managed to find the time. Seeing all these robot gets me excited again.
The LEGO-sorting robot really appeals to me. I can remember the days of getting halfway through building some spaceship and then realizing I had formed a plan that required certain blocks, but by the time I would get them sorted I would have run out of time. So first criteria of usefulness is met. It is also a decent mid-level difficulty project. Color and size detection is not too difficult a task, the maker says it can be done with a webcam, so you could focus on figuring out the hardware and coding of the robot. It well above LEGO Mindstorms but the learning curve is shallow enough to be tantalizingly challenging, as to opposed to unreasonably frustrating. It’s not some crazy ambitious humanoid robot with 6 servos and speech recognition. It looks as if it has one motor, needs one sensor, and has some basic hardware components. A good place to start.
I recently tried to build an Android App with only basic Java skills; stupid, I know. Eventually I had to give up because I came to a place where I was just copying and pasting code and could do no real innovation. If you were to take on a robot idea way above your skill level, you would end up doing things you don’t fully understand. Then you would be left only being able to mimic others, never building your own idea. The LEGO sorting robot would be a steep learning curve, you need to learn about motor ratings and control, how to make decision based on sensor data, and serious coding. It would be hard, but the kind of difficult where you step back and think “Man, I learned so much building this,” as opposed to “What do I do with this hunk of hardware I have given up on?” That is the second great outcome of building a robot. A sense of accomplishment and confidence that comes from knowing you can make something that several months ago seemed beyond understanding.
My name is Caroline Storm Westenhover. I am a Senior Electrical Engineering student at the University of Texas at Arlington. I am the third of seven children. I enjoy collecting ideas and theories and most enjoy when they come together to present a bigger picture as a whole. Perhaps that is why I like physics and engineering. My biggest dream is to become an astronaut.
