Programming and Robotics
For this project, we had to make a robot light show. To do this, we had to learn about programming and using codes. This was very new for me and my partner so we had a hard time, but managed to get ours to work. I am glad we did this project because I got to try something new and it was actually very interesting. We had two sets of lights go off to the tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb".
Concepts
In this project we learned about circuits, which is a complete loop of conductive material from one end of a power source to the other. We also learned about voltage which is the potential energy difference across a resistor. Voltage is measured in volts and is also known as the "push" of electricity. Current is measured in amp and is the "flow" of electricity through a circuit. resistance is the measure of difficulty encountered by a power source in forcing electric current through and electrical circuit. Resistance is measured in ohms. Ohm's Law is V=IR (velocity= current x resistance). It says that the current through the conductor between two points is proportional to the potential difference across the two points. We learned a lot about parallel and series circuits. A parallel circuit is when the resistors are parallel to each other. The current is split but the voltage remains the same. On the other hand, a series is when the resistors are in a row. The current remains the same, but the voltage splits. Kirchhoff's law is the sum of all currents flowing into a node is zero. A breadboard is a board used for making experimental models of electrical circuits. Arduino pins can either be inputs or outputs and we used them a lot. Finally, we learned about programming, which is the process of writing computer programs. I had never done this before so it was hard but we ended up getting the hang of it.
Video
robot light show | |
File Size: | 1131 kb |
File Type: | mov |
Reflection
I think this project went well. I loved that I got to learn new things about codes and using a breadboard. It was my first time using all this stuff so it was a little stressful, but our song finally ended up working with the lights. The hardest part was definitely trying to combine codes so that they would work together. I think that the best part was the lights lighting up to the beat of the song and then the row flashing. We could have done better with the song and tried something a little more challenging but it all worked together nicely and I really enjoyed this project.