Robotics

Note: There’s a companion post to this about using agentic AI here. Pre(r)amble I have a problem. Well, I have several problems, but this post is specifically about my habit of seeing a neat looking microcontroller, not really thinking about whether I need another one, and then buying a couple (because, well, you need two just in case, right?). In the office I have: A stack of v1 micro:bits Some third party micro:bit clones Several v2 micro:bits Raspberry Pi Picos (2040) DFRobot Beetles (ATmega) DFRobot Firebeetles (ESP32) Some ESP8266s Various ESP32 variants (some camera versions, some plain boards) How many have I actually gotten around to writing code on? One of the Firebeetles 😂 …and all of the micro:bits. Why? Having nice accessible inputs and outputs makes programming so much more enjoyable. The micro:bit completely nails this - no faffing around with which pin to use for the buttons, no I2C or SPI nonsense needed to poke at the accelerometer, and nothing funky to do to access the display, sound, or mic. Just use the nice simple API, load the code via USB and off you go. Even when running peripheral sensors, servos, etc the micro:bit is just a joy to get going with. ...

Pre(r)amble It’s hard to avoid all the AI infesting everything these days, but apart from using completions a bit in VSCode Copilot with the occasional conversation about different libraries (which I find a pretty pleasant way to learn about new things, even if those new things are occasionally BS) I haven’t really used it for code a lot. I read Github’s breathless “now, with AGENTS” release a while back, and never really gave it much thought until they also put out their Copilot Adventures … tutorials? The word “tutorial” feels a bit off, since the activities are couched in terms of “you’re going to make X!” but you’re not really making anything - you’re just being given examples of prompt structure to get the agent to build the thing for you. ...

As a teacher of relatively hands-on subjects, I regularly get roped into running sessions with groups of Year 6 students coming in for Orientation Days. Since getting my first batch of Micro:bits I have been running short sessions with physical computing since it’s short and accessible, and the kids can achieve something concrete by the end of a 45 minute session. The last couple of years I have been running sessions using laser cut Inchworm robots, where students hook up a servo, battery, and infrared sensor (to demonstrate external sensing but also to remove the need to fiddle with buttons on moving objects) to the Micro:bit, and then write some basic code investigating ideal angles of movement for the servo, delay time in between moves, and utilising loops. ...

Last year when looking at wireless concepts with my Year 8 Digital Technologies students, I wrote a program for wireless beacons and laser cut a Ghostbusters style PKE Meter with some servos and a RGB LED for students to go on a hunt in our library. It was a good opportunity to look at things like the range of wireless signals, interference due to obstruction of different materials, and noisy broadcast channels. The students quite enjoyed it and it was a nice excuse to get out of the classroom. ...

This is a bit of a retrospective of teaching Robotics as a subject to Year 8 students this year. A bit of a theme for my newish subjects tends to be a reduction in expectations as I filter out what I would have liked to have worked into what actually worked and variations on a theme. The three themes I’ve really thought about since I started teaching this subject are: ...

Motivation Ever since I bought some of Kitronik’s :move buggies I’ve been interested in making robots with the Micro:bit. They’re simple to program, have a decent set of features, and the kids enjoy using them. However they’re also a royal pain to assemble due to fiddly screw locations, quite expensive for what they are (we pay around $60AUD for what amounts to about $15-20AUD in components), and difficult to add on to due to cutting you off from all the additional pins the Micro:bit has to offer. ...

This post is intended to be a bit of a primer for teachers interested in getting into more varied use of the BBC Micro:bit beyond the inbuilt basics. My intention is to put together two posts: this one on the hardware and the ecosystem, and another on approaches in the classroom (which will mostly be a list of mistakes I’ve made and thoughts on doing things beter). This is by no means an exhaustive list of things you can do or components available. I’ve generally experimented with cheap and cheerful parts that I can source myself for a few dollars to see if it’s worth implementing in the classroom. I still have a long list of things I want to try! The components listed here I’ve generally had good success with. ...

Testing out LDR sensors This year I have been teaching robotics to Year 8s for the first time. I’ve mainly been using BBC Micro:bits, since they are quite affordable, robust, are easy to hook up to a range of widely available components, and are easy to program in a few different environments (MicroPython being my weapon of choice). To keep myself entertained, and to provide my students with a sample project (although more complex code-wise than they’re likely to accomplish) I decided to make something myself this term while my class worked on their own group projects (theirs are themed after the UN Global Goals). I had ideas for either building a carousel or a light gun game, and settled on the latter so I didn’t have to also tackle 3D printing out cams and gears and the like. ...