VEX IQ Crossover. Teacher Note. Competition for grabbing, moving and placing objects Pro Preview

  • #544
  • 23 Jul 2017
  • 4:13

English

A short note for the teacher about the competition for bringing as many objects as possible in 60 seconds. In a class of students it is possible that you have only one robot. One VEX robot. Then what you can do is just measure. Measure the time, measure the number of objects that students bring in 60 seconds. And you can have two different robots. Then you can just compete them to each other. Or you can have three or four and you should try to group them so that you have a really nice competition where each of the robots has a chance to compete. But if you have only one robot then just count the number of objects that you move. Next, about programming. Since it is a course for improving your score and for learning more you can use the remote controls for moving with this attachment, grabbing and leaving this and it's a good idea to start with the remote control when you have students that are younger. But for more experienced students you should try to direct them to use programming and programming should not be very hard. Just move forward, grab, turn, move, leave. So, start with remote controls and you can spend like half an hour or an hour on remote controls and then you could start working on programming. With programming it will be much more difficult but they learn so much more because you actually program the robot to move and to grab. Now, when the robot moves it is difficult to detect that you have a hexball. So, no need to detect. Just move and grab and they could actually use their hands when the robot comes closer they can use their hands and place the hexballs exactly where the robot could grab them. So, no need to build any sensors for detecting the hexballs just place them here. The robot moves and the students with hands could just place the hexballs and the robot will then take them. So, if the alignment is not correct, this is not something that should stop you. But what you should do in this case is to draw a line and to say 'Okay, the robot could take the hexballs from the students but only after this line.' And then the robot moves, crosses the line and the students give the robot the different balls. And then the robot continues, turns and places the objects at the final position. And finally about the time. How long should this competition take? Ideally, it will take no more than 2, 2 hours and a half and this is for a whole competition. So, they could actually program the robot to move forward, grab and to leave when the robot knows where the hexballs are. But depending on the speed of the students and the time that you have it might take less. So, it is important to set the expectations of the competition first to grab only 2, then only 4, then 6, then continue, then for 60 seconds. So, you should try to modify the class depending on the time that you have. We've initially planned this competition and we are doing it for about 2, 2 hours and a half and with some 30 minutes before the class or an hour for building it is a 3-hour class.