mBot Basics Introduction Workshop

Build and Battle using Arduino and Scratch 2.0

Coding has been identified as one of the basic skills for anyone besides Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. It has become increasingly important for even non-technically proficient people - when computers, embedded systems and Internet of Things (IoT) finally touch all walks of life. Making is also becoming a very important skill. Just working in the virtual world of coding is quickly becoming insufficient.

The ability to build physical objects - by combining software, hardware and artwork, stretches one's imagination to invent.

This workshop focuses on graphical programming, and participants will experience and appreciate the behavior of robot sensors and autonomy. By learning through mBot, mBlock and Scratch - participants will have a very fun session of building, programming and enhancing.

The mBot brain is based on an open platform Arduino processor board. This workshop will be concluded with a fun balloon battle game!

The workshop is designed to let participants observe the phenomena of the project outcome. Explore and learn the principles behind the phenomena. Finally experimenting through hands-on how to apply the principles to alter the outcome.

This course is a good prerequisite to the 4-part Competition Prep.

Introduction

• Learn about Arduino, an open source embedded system.
• Learn about the ease of graphical programming

Project 1: Flashing Colours, Lights and Music

• Using Arduino digital outputs(Actuators)
• Primary colours mixing LED colours and piezo music

Project 2: Run! Robot Run!

• Motion control: Exploring different commands to move the mBot in different directions
• Learn about delay loop coding

Project 3: Ultrasonic Distance Reading & Dodging Master(Obstacle Avoidance)

• Using sensors to detect and avoid objects
• Read distance values
• Learn loop and conditional branchings

Project 4: The Obedient Robot

• Remotely control the mBot using keyboard
• Program to detect keypress events

Game competition - Fun Balloon Battle

• Control and manipulate your mBot speeds and directions against your opponents

Other uses - Be a Maker

• Learn various creations and applications using embedded systems

What You'll Learn

• Ease of graphical programming
• Concepts of sensors
• Control of input and output(IO) of a microprocessor
• Program a robot to perform autonomous tasks

Who Should Take This Course

• Anyone or non-technical people who are interested in coding and robotics.
• Anyone or non-technical people who are curious about how embedded systems (microprocessor) work.
• Makers