Basic Robots Challenge Card Ideas¶

Ideas for challenge cards built around first robot chassis builds — table and floor robots, differential-drive motors, and the sense-decide-act control loop (Chapters 17-18).

Beginning¶

Assemble a Table Robot Chassis¶

Follow the kit's build steps to assemble a basic two-wheel table-robot chassis and motors without wiring any electronics yet, confirming both wheels turn freely by hand before any power is connected. Stretch goal: identify which wheel is left and which is right by tracing the wiring back to the chassis.

Straight-Line Drive Test¶

Wire both drive motors to run forward at equal speed for three seconds, then stop — the first working test confirming a new chassis drives in a straight line instead of curving to one side. Stretch goal: if it curves, adjust the motor speeds until it drives straight.

Motor Direction Check¶

Write a short program that runs each drive motor individually, first forward then reverse, confirming which wire connections control which direction before attempting any coordinated driving. Stretch goal: label each motor's wires with tape based on what was learned.

Simple Spin-in-Place Turn¶

Program the two drive motors to spin in opposite directions at equal speed for one second, rotating the robot roughly 90 degrees in place. Stretch goal: adjust the timing so the robot turns exactly 180 degrees instead.

Remote-Controlled Robot¶

Wire four push buttons — forward, back, left, right — so a student can manually drive the table robot around one command at a time. Stretch goal: add a fifth button that stops the robot immediately regardless of what it was doing.

Intermediate¶

Drive Function Library¶

Write a reusable drive(left_speed, right_speed) function using the book's own -100-to-100 convention, then use it to program a short pre-planned path: forward, turn, forward, turn, stop. Stretch goal: rewrite the same path using only calls to the function, with no other motor code anywhere else in the program.

Basic Collision Avoidance Robot¶

Combine a distance sensor with the drive function so the robot stops and turns automatically when an obstacle comes within a set distance, following the chapter's sense-decide-act loop. Stretch goal: tune the stopping distance for the room the robot is actually driving in.

Line-Following Robot (Table Version)¶

Use a downward-facing line sensor on a table robot to follow a strip of dark tape on a lighter table surface, adjusting motor speed based on what the sensor reports. Stretch goal: make the robot follow a line with at least one sharp turn in it.

Timed Square Path¶

Program the robot to drive in a complete square using only timed forward drives and timed 90-degree turns, with no sensors involved, then measure how close the final position lands to the starting point. Stretch goal: adjust the timings to make the error as small as possible.

Adjustable Speed Dial¶

Wire a potentiometer as a live speed control so turning the dial while the robot drives changes its forward speed in real time, connecting an analog input directly to motor output. Stretch goal: make turning the dial all the way down stop the robot completely.

Advanced¶

Full Collision-Avoidance Floor Robot¶

Build and tune a floor robot — not confined to a tabletop — that continuously reads a distance sensor and stops, reverses, and turns around obstacles in an open driving area, matching the chapter's complete four-step control loop with thresholds tuned for the actual room being used. Stretch goal: test the same robot in a much smaller space and retune the thresholds.

Priority-Based Sensor Integration¶

Combine a forward-facing distance sensor with a downward-facing line sensor on one robot, writing if/elif/else priority logic so obstacle avoidance always wins over line-following whenever both sensors trigger at the same time. Stretch goal: swap the priority order and describe how the robot's behavior changes.

Maze-Solving Robot¶

Using distance sensors on the front and one side, program a wall-following algorithm that navigates a simple maze from a marked start to a marked finish without any pre-mapped path. Stretch goal: solve the same maze from the opposite direction without changing the algorithm.

Robot Relay Race¶

Two students each build and hand off control between two robots at a marked checkpoint — the first robot must stop precisely at the checkpoint, and the second must start driving automatically. A substantial paired project combining timing, sensing, and coordination between two independent programs. Stretch goal: time the full relay and try to beat the previous run.

Troubleshoot-the-Broken-Robot¶

Given a robot chassis with one deliberately introduced wiring or code fault, use the chapter's troubleshooting decision workflow to diagnose and fix the fault without simply replacing parts at random. Stretch goal: introduce a different fault into a partner's robot and see how quickly they find it.