How Spanish students study robotics

The essence of the project BQ DIY KIT De Robotica

The KIT De Robotica system allows you to learn and create robots that differ in external design (development of 3D modeling skills, mechanics) and behavior (programming of sensors and systems) from standard (delivery set) and fully individual (parts printed on a 3D printer) components.
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KIT De Robotica belongs to DIY projects of robotics for beginners, as it does not require skills and soldering devices. Due to this and an integrated approach to design, the system has gained popularity in Spanish schools.

What is KIT De Robotica and why is this system?

When ordering KIT De Robotica, you get a nice little box, but that's not all. Simply sensors, wiring and engines can be easily purchased separately - and it will be cheaper, but it will not be enough to create a robot. BQ KIT De Robotica includes:

• basic sensors and components;
• online visual programming system;
• wagon concepts and assembly instructions;
• control program based on Android smartphones;
• unit training and development in the form of a site, video channel and forum.

All these elements form a very cute system that is tuned to maintain children's interest in technical education. At the same time, it is constantly developing due to the growing community of users (mostly teachers) who come up with new printbot concepts, offer new sensors and behavioral models of robots. Next we look at all the elements of the Spanish system.

Project portal, characters and content

The main project portal is located at http://diy.bq.com/ . From the very first glance it is clear that this portal is managed by a professional team. Designers came up with cute characters: a guy, a girl and a professor, chose a great combination of colors, a lot of objects are animated, in general, beautiful.

Characters and content

The guy helps to make robots and is the character of all instructions for assembling printbots:



Instructions are made as clear and colorful as possible; not in all cases they give a quick answer, offering first to sort out and solve the problem yourself.

The girl talks about the other possibilities of the robotics kit and shows how to use sensors. By the way, she has a real prototype, Anita, leading the video channel and blog:



The professor helps in physics in a separate section and participates in downloading sample code to the board on the page with a description of printbots or individual components of the set.

Video guide

Perhaps the most difficult in adapting the portal to Russia will be to find the lead (presenter) on the video guide. Simple Russian voice acting is not enough. Anita leads video lessons just gorgeous, constantly coming up with some theatrical moments. It is with such emotions and presentation that you can attract or at least not push away a young audience:



Forum

At the forum, you can ask questions and share ideas on how to improve robots, as the girl did:



It is clear that now the project is completely in Spanish and is only preparing to translate into Russian, but for familiarization and perception of the basic principles, machine translation of browsers and embedded translation of titles on the YouTube channel are quite enough. The quality of the translation will be somewhat higher if you choose from Spanish to English, and not to Russian. True, it seems to me that after watching the video 3-4 times, you can begin to understand Spanish.

A set of basic sensors and components

The kit is built on the principle of "necessary and sufficient" to create a single robot that can perform several functions (movement and capture of light objects) and respond with light and sound, to changing environmental conditions, as well as be controlled via Bluetooth.



Kit contents are easy to find on the box and lid. So, to create a robot will need:

• Battery compartment for 8 AA batteries;
• the brain of the future robot, fee Feduino UNO;
• 2 IR sensors (infrared);
• push button;
• 2 light sensors;
• Bluetooth module and USB cable;
• rheostat;
• 2 LEDs on the board;
• 2 mini servomotors;
• 2 servo motor continuous rotation.

All of these components are packaged and placed in small, color-coded, digitally and graphically labeled boxes. Such a rigorous approach to packaging design is due to the purpose of the kit for educational institutions. The teacher can give out the entire set as a whole, or separately for the elements, for example, a board and a servo drive. This principle of storage is very well suited for circles and classes in robotics at school, when, after classes, children will need to remove everything in its place. It will be very easy to do. A total of 13 mini-boxes and one connection instruction, which can be used as a basic hint or instruction in the classroom:



For educational institutions (wholesale purchase), additional sensors from the standard set (for example, servos) and advanced sensors, such as ultrasonic, are available to order. Additional sensors and motors may be needed for more complex robots, such as crab. Instructions for which have already been shown above:

Software

The programming tool is the site http://bitbloq.bq.com , from the tab of which we will learn, with the help of which tools it was created by BQ programmers:



First you need to go through a short registration. This is necessary to be able to customize the interface (choice of language and a set of modules) and save your code samples in the private area of ​​the cloud storage.

Cloud storage is gradually filled with examples of sensor programming that can be used in the classroom (when familiarizing with the kit) and complete robot programming projects.

For a quicker look at the possibilities, watch the short video:



To work correctly, you need a chrome browser and a Codebender plugin. It also works in the Yandex browser.

Printboot concept

To create a robot in BQ KIT De Robotica, it’s not a standard constructor, but elements printed on a 3D printer. This allows you to approach the design of the functionality and design of the robot as freely and individually as possible.




BQ has developed two basic benchmarks for which most of the examples are given - the tadpole and the beetle in the photos above, and constantly collects information about modifications and new print work from the community. Thus, a much more complex parable of the crab and bulldozer appeared.



Nobody forbids the use of additional elements of standard designers, paints or any other means available - this is a real DIY. For example, in the parable of a bulldozer, tracks from one of the LEGO kits are used. By the way, they can be printed using FilaFlex plastic (like rubber):



It is very easy to combine parts (gears and blocks) from the LEGO technician's sets and to invent and print some elements that simply cannot be in standard designers, for example, a unique crab shell:



This approach is not difficult for very young makers, because they get an already developed system and is unique for experienced ones who want to give individuality to their creations. In addition, it develops 3D modeling skills.

On the 2 basic models, you can learn which parts of the robot we must necessarily provide. For example, mounting the battery pack and sensors, balancers, holes for wiring and so on.



In more complex models, it is necessary to foresee how the robot will come into contact with the surfaces, whether it will be able to drive only on a flat surface or whether it can be launched on grass, ground, pebbles:



For schools and circles where there are no 3D printers yet, BQ supplies a complete set of parts printed on BQ WITBOX and other elements necessary for assembly (bolts, washers, rubber pads):

Robot control tool

As we learned, the robot can be programmed for a constant movement in response to data from sensors. The simplest of these is moving along the black line. If you want to gain complete control over the robot, you will need to install a Bluetooth card on the robot and program it to receive instructions through it.

In the KIT De Robotica system, it was decided to use the RoboPad application for Android to control the robot, which you can find on Google Play . It looks quite natural, considering that BQ releases a lot of Android devices and has its own staff of programmers. In addition, you do not need to carry a separate remote, enough smartphone.



The application contains an interface for controlling two types of robots, a tadpole and a bug. It is clear that externally it can be any robots that use two (type of tadpole) and four (type of beetle) servo.



On the screen there is also a button to go to automatic mode. This can be used in robo competitions, when part of the task needs to be performed manually, and once on the section of the card with black stripes, simply switch to automatic mode.

Extremely useful is the mode of programming the interface and commands to control the robot from the tablet. No code, some arrows.

The end. What is the highlight of BQ and why this system will give light to many domestic robot designers?

In conclusion, we will once again list the main pieces that prompted us to start supplying KIT De Robotica kits to Russia and support this project, making it a full-fledged robot building system in Russian:

- This is already beautiful. All materials and the concept itself looks beautiful and attractive.
- It's not boring. Designed characters and design are aimed at a wide audience. We hope that not only children of experienced Russian makers will become consumers of the kits, but also many other children who do not have such powerful creative examples at home.
- This is a system. The kit, programming, management and 3D printing are perfectly combined into a single system and we are preparing to provide it for Russian schools and circles.
- It is individually. Using 3D printing, it is possible to create completely your robots, to make them unique both in design and in behavior.
- It's simple. Visual programming tools allow you to use them to teach younger groups of students, while you can switch to a text language and start learning it.
- It is necessary. We believe that children should comprehend the basics of robotics, as the basis for creative thinking and designing more complex systems. Faced with difficulties and getting small victories when designing small robots, they learn not to be afraid of difficulties. Not everyone, but the best will start setting more ambitious goals and will be able to achieve them.

We will be glad if you want to support the project, becoming the leading video hints, creating code samples and saving it in public folders or starting to create new unique printbots.