Introduction

Introduction to mBot

In these lessions plans we will learn some basic principals of computer science using the mBot robot. These lessons are ideal for students that have not mastered keyboarding skills but still would like to program their own robot.

Order of Labs

We start out with Desktop labs that don't use the motors. This is because motors drain the batteries and if the students are not careful the mBot will fall off the desks and break. It is only AFTER our students master the initial skills that we enable the motor labs which are done while the mBot is on the floor. We strongly discorage motor labs when the mBot is not on the floor.

Desktop Labs

Our first labs will verify that the mBot is hooked up correctly and that our students can change the color of the LED on top of the mBot. We then will introduce the repeat block to make the LEDs flash on and off or change colors.

Next we will experiment with the ping sensor to measure the distance between the robot and an object in front of the robot. We will use this to change the LED colors, the blink rate or the color of the LEDs.

After the students have mastered running programs, changing the LEDs and using the ping sensor we will move on to controlling the motors.

Motor Labs (only done when the mBot is on the Floor)

We have several simple labs we start out with. The first labs are a simple motion and turning labs. Once the students can make the robot go in a square, a circle or dance using random number generation we move on to integrating the ping sensor. The ping sensor is then used to turn the robot when an object is in front of the robot. We then make the robot reverse and turn in a random direction when it sees an object in front of the robot.