Robotics direction in summer programming school from Yandex and ABBYY

Went to an interesting event - the summer programming school for high school students from Yandex and ABBYY:

Summer holidays are a great time to learn something new, to spend time outdoors, to meet people with whom you have similar interests.

ABBYY and Yandex are opening a summer school in the Moscow region for children going into grades 9-11 and interested in programming, theory of algorithms, mathematics, robotics.

In fact, the event is annual, but I would like to note that this year the direction of robotics was included (in addition to the areas of Olympiad programming and application development).
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The summer school will be held from 3 to 23 August 2014 in the vicinity of Zvenigorod - the Ershovo pension (this is one of the few remaining noble estates of the Moscow region).

The summer school will have two classes in robotics:

• Arduino Robotics
• Robotics TRIK (domestic cybernetic constructor TRIK)

In more detail about teachers (in my opinion one of the most experienced in Russia), about topics of classes of robotics and about designers:

Arduino Robotics

The course is aimed at introducing and disseminating the best practices in the career guidance of talented young people to engineering design specialties; corresponds to the international educational paradigm "STEM-education" (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics).

Classes will allow students to acquire skills to work with this popular platform around the world, will provide an opportunity to get acquainted with microcontrollers, design and programming of simple devices, as well as create unique gadgets in their own way, embodying the most incredible ideas.

At the end of the course will create the final creative project.

As a result, the student will receive an excellent knowledge base, which can easily be used in the future: for new projects and for admission to a technical university.

The basis of the training equipment is an open platform Arduino, which allows you to collect various electronic devices that can work both independently and in conjunction with a computer. It all depends on the proposed idea.

Teachers: Denis G. Koposov and Alexey Perepelkin.



Denis Koposov is an informatics teacher from gymnasium No. 24 in Arkhangelsk, who thanks to his personal initiative for several years (since 2009) successfully leads and develops on the basis of his school - robotics lessons, and popularizes STEM-robotics, began engineering education in the school .

In their school laboratory together with schoolchildren, in practice they tried out many educational kits on robotics, which led to the creation of training laboratories for students from 5 to 11 classes (based on Lego, Arduino, Scratch, ChipKIT, NI LabVIEW, LilyPad, etc. .):






Alexey Perepelkin - Amperka Educational Project Coordinator , Head of the Robotics Circle in Krylatskoye In addition, he oversees teacher training courses, distance learning courses on Arduino.

An example of a training stand based on Arduino and Troyka modules from Amperka:


Here is the Arduino Robotics course curriculum :

Topic 1. Introduction
Familiarity with the Arduino platform. Electronic components. Development environment. Implementation of 20 training mini-projects.

Topic 2. Sensors
Sensors (sensors) analog and digital. Distance sensors IR distance sensor and interpolation. Light sensors.

Theme 3. Visualization
Wednesday Processing. Visualization of data received from sensors.

Topic 4. DIY Robot
Motor control. Build, configure, programming a two-wheeled robot. The movement of the robot on the line.

Theme 5. Creative project
Creative project based on the Arduino platform. Possible directions:

• hand manipulator control,
• biometric systems
• watering system of plants through a local network or the Internet,
• electronic textiles
• meteorological station
• access systems and much more.

Robotics TRIK

The TRIK set is a continuation of the domestic iron constructor (known to many), but only in relation to robotics ( website , VK group ).

The cybernetic constructor of TRIK allows you to collect a variety of different robotic models: from basic educational to the most modern, able to "see", "hear", to interact.

The TRIK constructor is not just a fun toy, but an excellent set of prototyping robotic models: a strong skeleton, basic drives, the necessary sensors.

The TRIC metal parts are compatible with the “co-metal constructor”, i.e., perforation under the M4 with a 10 mm pitch. We did not set ourselves the goal of inventing a new metal constructor, but only added the necessary. The principal difference from conventional designers is as follows:

• Strong metal. Parts are made 0.75mm thick, 0.8mm, 1.0mm.
• Hard profile. Beams of a P-shaped profile.
• Convenient to collect. Adapters (adapters) for mounting standard motors, servomotors, etc. are provided.

Teachers: Sergey Filippov and Ilya Shyrokolobov.

If you somehow try to search the Internet for a book on Robotics in Russian, then with a high probability you will find the book by Sergey Filippov “Robotics for children and parents”.





Sergey Filippov - Teacher, Methodologist, Additional Education Teacher, Head of the Center for Robotics at the Presidential Physics and Mathematics Lyceum No. 239. Head of the city methodical association of teachers of robotics in St. Petersburg. The head of the teams winning at the largest international competitions in robotics, the author of textbooks.



Ilya Shyrokolobov - Postgraduate Student, Department of Theoretical Cybernetics, St. Petersburg State University; Head of the Robofootball Section; St. Petersburg State University Robotics Circle;

The TRIK set participated in the Russian stage of the World Olympiad of Robots (WRO), which was recently held in Kazan:





The open-source TRIK Studio software for programming robots is a plus :


Curriculum directions "Robotics TRIK":

1. Introduction to TRIK programming. Graphic shell TRIK.
2. Control the robot. Motors and sensors. Kegelring
3. Follow the line using light sensors. Proportional regulator.
4. Slalom along the line.
5. Carrying out competitions.
6. Bypassing items. PD regulator.
7. Control of the manipulator. Capture and move items.
8. Gyroscope and accelerometer. Balancing robot. PID controller
9. Introduction to text programming (C #, JavaScript).
10. Using a video camera to solve various problems.

• Follow the line.
• Search for objects.
• Obstacle avoidance.
• Sort objects.

11. Work with sound.
12. Work on the project.

Finally

Why robotics IT companies? In my opinion it is:

• investment in personnel
• increasing interest in IT (programming)
• attracting students to specific areas that Yandex and ABBYY have - machine learning, pattern recognition system.

In a recent article on Forbes , Arkady Volozh (General Director of Yandex), noted separately the direction of machine learning:

Robotics - includes machine learning. Pattern recognition (from ABBYY) is also actively used and developed in robotics, from the simplest (line follower) to face recognition.

I am glad that companies such as Yandex and ABBYY have paid attention to robotics, educational robotics. In my opinion, the integration of robotics in school classes will contribute to the natural formation of interest in IT disciplines, in technical creativity and ultimately in students' knowledge.

By the way, there is still an extension to the direction of robotics! Apply now .