developing resources

I think this year is one of cool stuff.
The ideas need to be simple enough to develop different ideas.
Today I found out about edCreate, an extension kit for the edison robot.
https://meetedison.com/edcreate/
It has been a day of trying to find a location in New Zealand that has these.

https://nicegear.nz/product/edcreate as well as http://www.mindkits.co.nz/edcreate.aspx.

I like the idea of the bag concept, I play on using this with one of my students, the idea is getting them working with the concepts of mechatronics.

The second idea is around developing Designing and Developing Digital Outcomes, https://papersignals.withgoogle.com/

What a great way to get students to develop ideas and concepts with voice technology. Consider the google home and amazon dot that are being released.

Third idea, this is currently being written as an assessment resource. Dealing with advanced programming and using the power of python parsing files.

robocup junior

Thanks to nz-interface magazine, I found some Professional Development that fitted right up my alley. LEGO mindstorms robotics with there new product NXT.

This is what I have been looking for a while now, the last set of training I had in robotics was good, but this was specific to my needs and I had a fun day learning as well as being in competition with students and other teachers, well more the students from the other school.

It started off with looking at previous years work through a DVD that was being shown, this has highlighted some ideas for me. Next was looking at the interface and connecting into the program. Then the play started, as we developed our programs just by seeing what different things did, me and the students started a challenge, to get our robots from one end to a specific point at the other without touching an object. This was a straight challenge that started off the competition between teachers and students. the rest of the day was jumping back and forth from the laptops to the competition floor, the teacher running the event kept coming with the challenges and the learning took place. Not too much was taught, but I enjoy that, it is a case of finding and trying it out yourself.

Task One - Travel a length of distance without touching the object at the end, closet to the object wins.

Task Two - Travel a variable length of distance without going over the cliff, this introduces the light sensor.

Task Three - Do not go outside the circle - Black and White

Task Four - Walk the line, part one, follow a straight line.

Task Five - Walk the line , part two, follow a non straight line

Task Six - Walk the line, part three, hitting an object, this introduces a touch sensor

Task Seven - Walk the maze

This was what we focussed on for the day, there was another task which was getting the robot to dance, this can be carried out at school. Another thing is to focus on the programming, not on the design of the robot, yes your robot can look good, but it has to work. Thank you to Toshiba and to the Auckland robocup organiser for such a wonderful day.

Resource Ideas

http://www.techxellenttraining.com.au/Robot%20Rescue.pdf

http://robofesta.open.ac.uk/planetscience/package/admin.html <- old RCX development

Sumo assesment from aotea tech

http://www.aoteatech.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10:5967-lego-robot-sumo&catid=1:computing&Itemid=7

Blogs from students doing robotics assessment

http://studentannihilator.blogspot.com/

Robots

Yay, he finally posted it online for me to use.

http://files.meetup.com/163896/0627%20MAT%20Robots%20Pres%20v1.1.pdf

I have been waiting for this file for a long period of time. It has some fantastic images of robots and how they have changed over time and they are beginning to look like. I wanted to use this as part of a Unit Standard assessment in Computing.

Oh well I can always build on this as it would make a great resource.

Robotics

I have ben working on my robotics unit plan for the term. We have a number of Lego RCX robots and a NXT robot available to us. I have been working on the theory behind the assessment. So far we have looked at Robots, where they fit into things, how they work and the three laws of robotics.

Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
   
2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
   
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or the Second Law.

But are these laws safe, there is a website that looks at these issues

"3 LAWS UNSAFE" ARTICLES

Is it possible to create ethical AI based on the Three Laws? Is it ethical to create ethical AI based on the Three Laws? What other solutions have been proposed for the problem? These questions are explored in the Articles Section. The articles give perspective on why the field of AI ethics is crucial, and why Asimov’s Laws are simply its beginning.

We have watched a couple of episodes of "Lost in Space", the 1965 original and I, Robot. We are now working on creating a couple of robots and getting some programs into them. However, to do this we need batteries and a virtual machine with usb support, something that Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 or 2007 doesn't have.