Saturday, February 21, 2015

Robots and Drones

My middle school robotics class ran their "Desk Racer" Grand Prix through the hall ways of the school recently.  It was some spirited fun, although one of the lunchroom monitors seemed a little put out by the disorder.  And the water squirter.


On the starting line.

We got some decent video footage of the races....there was some remarkably bad driving on display at times.  I guess the kids are just a little excitable at that age.


Oh, but that driving was NASCAR quality compared to this next one.  The kid filling his tray was remarkably calm about it all!


One of the tech ed teachers turned up with a camera drone.  It was creepy seeing this thing following behind the racers like a menacing black bat.


In our after school session we broke the machines down into components for future projects.  But not before I let the kids up volt the machines and try to drive the "hot" versions in the empty hallways. The wisdom of limiting the power for the competition became very quickly apparent!

3 comments:

The Old Man said...

Machines Behaving Badly, indeed. For some reason I doubt that RC is in the future of some of the kids.

I, on the other hand, have already started my 5 y.o. grand-dotter out on a ground-pounder with plans to get her airborne in a couple of years. Fly 'em meself, doncha know.

Tacitus said...

If you have been following the saga you might be interested to know that the "failed" Racer C can, after a fashion, be driven if you increase the voltage from 12 to 24, then get up a good head of steam and "Tokyo Drift" around the corners!

Tacitus

The Old Man said...

A useful bit of information. Bet it is still dangerous to indigenous students...