Where did the idea come from?

The insperation for the Junkbots project came from reading the seminal book Junkbots, Bugbots, and Bots on Wheels  by Dave Hrynkiw and Mark W Tilden. In this book they discussed turning electrical 'junk' into some very interesting robots - and sneaking in some very interesting engineering challenges and principles.


A sample chapter can be found here looking at producing a solar powered motored 'bug'. 



The robots built within the JunkBots project are simpler but the principles are the same. If you are interested in this area this book is a must read.

How to build junkbots: Old toys

In a previous blog entry the idea of using drinks can and an unbalanced motor was discussed. but what else have the projects participants tried?

Some groups tried using old toys as the basis of their junkbots.

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How to build junkbots: Drinks can, unbalanced motor

The junkbots project has now being running for 18 months in Northamptonshire, UK. But how have the junkbots being built? A video produced by one of the particpants can be found here, showing some of the examples.

Several ways have been investigated by the participants in the next few blogs some of these will be talked about.

Let's start with the main approach, simplest way and probably the quickest:- A drink can and an unbalanced motor - shaking its way around.

Take a 330ml drinks can and put it on its side. Fix an electric motor over one end of the can, packing tape is good for this (but not very environmentally friendly). Attach something to the motor's spindle that unbalances the motor, the goal is to get it vibrating. Broken propellers, cogs with Blu-tak, cogs with modelling clay have all being tried.

The problem with this, is turn the motor on and the junkbots rolls over onto it side and goes around in circles. A couple of fixes students have tried, adding outriggers at the bottom of the robots (marker pens are pretty good for this). The other main way been tried is 'legs'; straws, ice-lolly sticks taped to the side.

The vibration makes the junkbot move but it is not controllable. A modification tried by one group of students has the tank-track principle. Add two unbalanced motors and by using one or both motors at any time there is a lot more controllability added.

A feature of a lot of the junkbots  that slowed them down is too much weight (unlike the one shown above - minus the can), in many cases lots of extra decoration was added to the junkbots that lead to slower junkbots (or in some cases stationary junkbots).

Junkbots gets younger.

The Junkbots project, has up to this point, being focussed on students between the ages 11-14 years old. Recent developments in the project have lead to some of the material being delivered to younger children.

During September 2010  the robot programming side of the project was both developed further and delivered by the two new facilitators Kumuditha Kariyawasam and Aleksandra Dziubek.(see picture), two final year Computing students from the School of science and Technology, University of Northampton, UK. Their material was developed to make this side of project more accessible to a younger group, but also to appeal to girls a little more. An example of the material can be found by clicking on the link here.

Along side this in November, the part of project building robots out of 'junk' was used with a group of Beaver Scouts (5-8 years old) in a Northamptonshire village. One of the Beaver's said he wants to build a "junkbot factory".

The success and the lessons learnt from these sessions do suggest that the material developed in the project:

• Can be used with a younger audience than previously thought;
• Has a potential further outlet through youth organisations, though it has been suggested it might be better delivered over two weeks due to the short time of each their sessions.

More computing. more interaction - Greenfoot

One of the criticism of the robot programming part of the Junkbots project is not everyone necessarily gets a go at the programming. To address this a new feature has been added to the project. There are now two parallel activities  as well as programming a robot; there is a separate programming exercise carried out at the same time which replicates some of the same actions of the robot but this time on screen.

Figure: Robot pushing a barrel

These exercises are based around the increasngily popular Greenfoot software (http://www.greenfoot.org/download/) which is free to download and use. This can be put on as many machines as are need enabling more people to have a go at programming.

The exercises initially gets participants to set-up the world, place a robot within it and get the robot to move across the screen. Building on the each previous exercise, the complexity increases and includes challenges (such as in the figure) where the robot pushes a piece of rubbish (in this case a barrel) off the screen.


Some of the material can be found at: http://www.computing.northampton.ac.uk/~scott/greenfoot_ex/sco1/default.htm

Huxlow School event, a change

On 23rd June 2010 approximately 90 students at Huxlow Science School, Northamptonshire were involved with some of the material from the Junkbot project. This was different to the other schools that took part for two reasons.

First they were only able to to take part in a small part of the work from the project, namely building a 'robot' from junk that moved. It was an opportunity to trial some 'bite-sized' 1 hour 30 minutes chunks of the project.

The second and the most exciting part of the day for me was the school created two new sessions of their own based on the junkbot idea, which indicates well for the idea that this project has the potential to be sustatainable. The new ideas included making a model of a larger robot models from junk and producing a presentation on robotics.

I wish to thank the staff and students at Huxlow School who took part and I hope they won't mind if I use their ideas to make changes to the project.

Overview: Questions asked and hopefully answered

The aim of this project is to introduce concepts of environmental sustainability, engineering and computing. In a fun and educational project that uses the STEM subjects. The project is delivered by university staff and students going into schools to provide guidance and support in the production of the robots.

This project sets out to engage pupils with a set of activities over 12 hours that provides an insight into STEM subjects. The workshops will be structured in the following way:

Activity 1

Introduction to waste management, its impact, recycling and reuse. An introduction to the idea of making robots from rubbish.

Activity 2

Involves some problem-solving exercises (approx. ½ hour), and then in groups investigate adding ‘junk’ with a new electrical components such as batteries and motors to use vibrations to move the robots.

Activity 3

To apply some of the ideas on problem solving and use of materials developed previously to build a little junk-clearing robot.

·         Lego based robots are provided with two light sensors;

·         a play area (containing borders and area for the junk to be placed);

The facilitators will help with programming the robots and the instructions to be used.

Activity 4

The final session will involve the students, with the help of the facilitators, demonstrating and presenting their group’s solutions.

·         Each group will present their work to the other groups in a way they feel is most appropriate- with facilitators help if needed.

·         An hour tinkering time before the presentation will be given to solve any last minute problems.

Target Audience

The project aims to provide an opportunity for year 7,8, or 9 students.

Delivery

This is can be delivered flexibly the restrictions are:

·         Students must get 12 hours of STEM activity

·         Availability of the project team.

Models of Delivery

The project has been delivered so far in two modes

·         Fours short days.

·         Two full days with 2 hours preparation outside of the sessions.

How much do it cost?

All  project team’s costs are covered by the project, as are some of the basic electrical parts essentially a few motors and wires and the Lego robots. The rest, ideally, is provided by the students and anything the school wants to contribute. Northamptonshire Enterprise Ltd and East Midlands Development Agency (emda) are, along with the University of Northampton, supporting for this project.

School resources

It is useful to have two rooms one for building the robots and  a ICT room for preparing the presentations and keeping an journal. It would be helpful for one of the rooms to be suitable for running presentations and for the project team to present a small amount of material.

Student’s Feedback

Building  Junkbots

"We had the [f]reedom to show the teachers what skills we have" (Student BW-B)
"The activity was very fun and creative. We experience lots of difficulties to overcome." (Student BW-K)
"it was nice have time off timetable once in a while" (Student BW-N)
"I found that building the junk bots has made me some new friends..." (Student BW-T)
"...as we[ we]re able to put any ideas forward to put ideas forward to create our own creation" (Student BW-V)

“I enjoyed the activity but I had a few problems” (student M-D)

“I liked this but it was hard at times” (student M-F)

“It was fun” (student M-G)

Waste Management Activity

“...it was cool to know what my carbon footprint is.”
“... made me think about all the waste in the world.”
“[I] now recycle”

"Lots of information which was useful..."(Student BW-B)
"I learnt a lot and calculating my carbon footprint was great" (Student BW-J)
"I learnt about [Eco] stuff" (Student BW-S)
"I found the waste management activity helpf[ul] because it showed me the truth of what we could do to help the earth" (Student BW-T)
"I liked the presentation we were given...interesting facts which we will remember a long time" (Student BW-V)

Programming the Robots.

"Really enjoyed it" (Student BW- G)
"It was really good and the amount I have learnt about Java is incredible" (Student BW- J)
"It was cool because we could program them" (Student BW- Q)
"It was good being the programmer" (student BW- R)

“I enjoyed this the most because it involved problem solving” (student BW- G)

The Project Overall

“it was fun and creative, I learnt quite a bit” (Student T-A)
“It let us be creative with our design.” (Student T-B)
“it opened my eyes to engineering” (Student T-C)

"The whole project was really fun and I enjoyed it lots and I liked making the robots the most" (Student BW- A)

"It was fun because I learnt about carbon emissions and the stuff you need to do the robot" (Student BW- M)

"Overall it was very fun yet informative" (Student BW- R)

"... project was great! It was a great way to teach us more about science, technology, engineering and maths. I also think it improved our problem solving skills. " (Student BW- W)

 “brilliant” (student M-L)

“It was the best activity I have ever done” (Student M-M)

Working in teams

“We liked this activity because it help us work as a team.”
“We really enjoyed ourselves over the last 4 days. We found it very useful.”

For more Information

Contact: Scott Turner

Email: scott.turner@northampton.ac.uk

Telephone: 01604 893028

Junkbots blog: http://junkbots.blogspot.com/

Online materials and information: http://www.computing.northampton.ac.uk/~scott/projects_1.html

Moulton School NewsLetter

An article about the Junkbots project has been published in the Moulton School Newsletter (see http://www.moultonschool.co.uk/assets/Uploads/Newsletter/Issue-10.pdf).


Included in this is a link to the student-lead presentations at the end of the sessions. These can be found at:www.moultonschool.co.uk/Junkbots or by following these links:
Team 1
Team 2
Team 3
Team 4


Funding has been secured to extend the project, so if you would like to know more about this project please contact Scott Turner or visit the project website at http://www.computing.northampton.ac.uk/~scott/projects_1.html

Current state of the project

Three schools have taken part of the project (62 students in all), so time to reflect on and summarise the project so far.

Waste Management

The waste management activities seem to engage from the point of view of helping them to understand their own impact both positively and negatively.
“...it was cool to know what my carbon footprint is.”
“... made me think about all the waste in the world.”
“[I] now recycle”

"Lots of information which was useful..."(Student BW-B)
"I learnt a lot and calculating my carbon footprint was great" (Student BW-J)
"I learnt about [Eco] stuff" (Student BW-S)
"I found the waste management activity helpf[ul] because it showed me the truth of what we could do to help the earth" (Student BW-T)
"I liked the presentation we were given...interesting facts which we will remember a long time" (Student BW-V)

Junkbot building

"We had the [f]reedom to show the teachers what skills we have" (Student BW-B)
"interesting overall" (Student BW-H)
"...but frustrating because modifications were frequent" (Student BW-J)
"The activity was very fun and creative. We experience lots of difficulties to overcome." (Student BW-K)
"it was nice have time off timetable once in a while" (Student BW-N)
"I found that building the junk bots has made me some new friends..." (Student BW-T)
"...as we[ we]re able to put any ideas forward to put ideas forward to create our own creation" (Student BW-V)

“I enjoyed the activity but I had a few problems” (student M-D)

“I liked this but it was hard at times” (student M-F)

“It was fun” (student M-G)

“I enjoyed doing practical work” (student M-J)

“needed imagination and construction” (student M-L)

Programming robots

The programming of the robots caused a differences in opinion which seemed to come down to two main factors, that there was only one robot per group and having to learn a challenging new skill (programming):
"Didn't get much of a go on this one" (Students D, E)
"this was good however I didn't get to to do a lot" (Student F)
"Really enjoyed it" (Student G)
"It was really good and the amount I have learnt about Java is incredible" (Student J)
"It was cool because we could program them" (Student Q)
"It was good being the programmer" (student R)

“it was exciting and interesting but I didn’t get to do much” (student C)

“I didn’t really understand it !!!” (student E)

“I enjoyed this the most because it involved problem solving” (student G) 5/5

“I did not really enjoy this...I found it confused” (student K)

Saying all that those that did it generally performed very well completing the tasks set.

• Most groups programmed a robot to push a can into a containment area (a black square);
• Some groups managed to get a robot to push a can to a black line reverse leaving the can in the square;
• The previous task was developed by some groups to including stopping at second black line after reversing away from the first black line;
• One group used an ultrasonic sensor and the robot didn't move until an object was placed in front of it;
• A second groups moved towards an object, detected it using a light sensor and went around the object.   

Teamworking

The language the students used in feedback suggests the students did see the team work element to it. Each reply was an individual reply, but in many cases ‘we’ and ‘us’ was used. This could be indicative that these students did see it as a group activity (which it was intended to be). A couple of quotes from one of the students on this point
“We liked this activity because it help us work as a team.”
“We really enjoyed ourselves over the last 4 days. We found it very useful.”

Future Work and Teacher Feedback

Twelve school expressed an interest, we delivered the material in three schools and a fourth we are discussing times.

• One the suggestion from one teacher of the future direction to take this and possible other related project, including a future robot project. This project is about developing cross-disciplinary (Computing/ICT/Design) material using the Matrix Multimedia robot that could be used at several years, revolving around robot programming is especially interesting for under a £1000 you can have ten robots that can be added to relatively easily, be programmed in a simple specially written language or  in more widely and industrially used langauges such as C.
• Based on a suggest (see the quote below) from another of the teachers involved students were encouraged to keep journals of their activities and team leaders were selected by the groups. "I do feel embedding some sort of diary/journal adds a focus and allows every one to reflect on what they have done."

Overall Project

Quotes from some of the students:
“it was fun and creative, I learnt quite a bit”
“It let us be creative with our design.”
“it opened my eyes to engineering”

"The whole project was really fun and I enjoyed it lots and I liked making the robots the most" (Student BW- A)

"It was fun because I learnt about carbon emissions and the stuff you need to do the robot" (Student BW- M)

"Overall it was very fun yet informative" (Student BW- R)

"The junkbots project was great! It was a great way to teach us more about science, technology, engineering and maths. I also think it improved our problem solving skills. " (Student BW- W)

“It was very good overall” (student M-A)

 “It was better than normal lessons” (student M-J)

 “brilliant” (student M-L)

“It was the best activity I have ever done” (Student M-M)

Overall the project has been successful and lessons have been learnt. There is still scope for more work and the possibility of tailoring the material to the school whilst still keeping within the scope of the project, by spending more time on certain aspects. As examples:

• The sustainability aspects of the project could be emphasised.
• If the school or the students wanted to focus on the junk-bot building side this could potentially be accommodated.
• The development of programming skills in combination with junk-bot could also become the focus of the sessions. 

Junkbots hit Moulton Pt 2

Thank you to the staff and students at Junkbots at Moulton School and Science College for their involvement with the Junkbots project. This time the students taking part where in year 7 (previously they had been in year 8)

Overall the feedback was positive (see below), with 12 out 13 (5 replies were not available) at a rating of 3 out of 5 or above.

The approach taken was a little more structured with time allocation more tightly controlled, especially in the junk robot building exercises and programming.

.


The programmed robots generally performed very well completing the tasks set. Of particular note were two solutions from the one group that showed avoidance behaviour:

• One solution used an ultrasonic sensor and the robot didn't move until an object was placed in front of it;
• A second moved towards an object, detected it using a light sensor and went around the object.   

Junkbots hits Moulton: Part 1

The junkbot project moved to Moulton  School & Science Academy, and working with eighteen Year 7 students and their teacher Desmond  O'Niell, looking at issues relating to waste management and also using engineering and computing principles. Examples of the the robots produced and the level of creativity can be seen below:

Some creative ideas are demonstrated using cans and motors with eccentric cams either as a source of vibration or as wheels, and all used the principle of control similar to tank tracks (control one side then the other) to direct the robots. Also the students were encouraged to consider form over function (and especially the weight will have an effect on the effectiveness of the solution). Two groups actually developed solutions that could move a drinks can but also small parts into a specified area.

This was taken from the first part of the project and I would like to thank Mr O'Niell for inviting us in and also for the suggestions of the future direction to take this and possible other related project, including a future robot project. This project is about developing cross-disciplinary (Computing/ICT/Design) material using the Matrix Multimedia robot that could be used at several years, revolving around robot programming is especially interesting for under a £1000 you can have ten robots that can be added to relatively easily, be programmed in a simple specially written language or  in more widely and industrially used langauges such as C.

As personal point of view I think robots are a great teaching tool for developing engineering and computing skills, as well engaging people with STEM subjects (hence the junkbot project and my own research). We are also especially lucky in Northamptonshire to have two leading companies in automation and robotics  Festo and ABB having a presence in or near Northampton.

Student Feedback from Brooke Weston

Thank you to the students and staff at Brooke Weston School, Corby, UK for working with us on this project. Here are some of the comments made by the students.

Several of the students identified some interesting features about building robots out of 'junk':
"We had the [f]reedom to show the teachers what skills we have" (Student B)
"interesting overall" (Student H)
"...but frustrating because modifications were frequent" (Student J)
"The activity was very fun and creative. We experience lots of difficulties to overcome." (Student K)
"it was nice have time off timetable once in a while" (Student N)
"I found that building the junk bots has made me some new friends..." (Student T)
"...as we[ we]re able to put any ideas forward to put ideas forward to create our own creation" (Student V)

The programming of the robots caused a differences in opinion which seemed to come down to two main factors, that there was only one robot per group and having to learn a challenging new skill (programming):
"Didn't get much of a go on this one" (Students D, E)
"this was good however I didn't get to to do a lot" (Student F)
"Really enjoyed it" (Student G)
"It was really good and the amount I have learnt about Java is incredible" (Student J)
"This activity was fun but very fustrating if the program wasn't going well" (Student L)
"We didn't actually get much of a go on this one because we had to plan the presentation" (Student O)
"It was cool because we could program them" (Student Q)
"It was good being the programmer" (student R)

Waste Management like the programming of the robots caused some variation in feedback:
"Lots of information which was useful..."(Student B)
"Very informative but could have been a bit more fun" (Student I)
"I learnt a lot and calculating my carbon footprint was great" (Student J)
"This was different and you found out facts" (Student P)
"I learnt about [Eco] stuff" (Student S)
"I found the waste management activity helpf[ul] because it showed me the truth of what we could do to help the earth" (Student T)
"I liked the presentation we were given...interesting facts which we will remember a long time" (Student V)
"I learnt a lot from this. I enjoyed planning a campaign and the statistics were revealing" (Student W)

On the project overall the feedback was very positive

"The whole project was really fun and I enjoyed it lots and I liked making the robots the most" (Student A)

"The project as a whole was very fun and I learnt many different skills." (Student C)

"It was fun because I learnt about carbon emissions and the stuff you need to do the robot" (Student M)

"Overall it was very fun yet informative" (Student R)

"The junkbots project was great! It was a great way to teach us more about science, technology, engineering and maths. I also think it improved our problem solving skills. " (Student W)

Some pictures of the activities in action can be found at http://www.brookeweston.org/Home/Galleries/Gallery.aspx?id=132

Brooke Weston Event

Students at Brooke Weston School, Corby have been working with the University of Northampton's School of Science and Technology on the junkbots project. Scott Turner and Terry Tudor on the 16th and 17th February 2010 went to the school to run the sessions. Starting with a talk and activities on waste management, including how much waste the UK produced, and in terms of numbers of slices of toast what is the cost of energy of leaving a monitor on overnight.  


The task was to produce robots out of rubbish that could carry other rubbish into a containment area. The change made to the sessions was that students brought there own 'junk' to the sessions.

Some innovative and creative designs were produced involving 'legs', wheels (including turning cans into wheels and wheels from old toys). 

 

Some of the designs pushed rubbish into the area, but one of the designs carried the rubbish into the area and some designs used magnets to pick up small steel parts (nuts and bolts).

 The third task was to use lego-based robots to repeat the second task by programming the robots and use of sensors.

Based on the feedback from Nigel Barratt (see the quote below) who co-ordinated the session at the school, students were encouraged to keep journals of their activities and team leaders were selected by the groups.
"I do feel embedding some sort of diary/journal adds a focus and allows every one to reflect on what they have done."


Based on the feedback shown above the session were enjoyed and the level of engagement was overall high.

Views and feedback

Feedback from the sessions in December are very encouraging. When students were asked to grade out of 5 the sessions overall ( scores with 1 being poor and 5 excellent) of the twenty replies received 100% were rate at 4 (65%)or 5(35%). In all the questions asked, the feedback was in the majority rated three or above.

For this group of the students the creative aspects of the activities engaged them and this was reflected in their feedback. Quotes from some of the students:
“it was fun and creative, I learnt quite a bit”
“It let use be creative with our design.”
“it opened my eyes to engineering”
This last one is especially of note as the aim of the project is to encourage engagement with Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects.

The waste management activities seem to engage from the point of view of helping them to understand their own impact both positively and negatively.
“...it was cool to know what my carbon footprint is.”
“... made me think about all the waste in the world.”
“[I] now recycle”

An observation that needs to be unpacked a little more is the language the students used. Each reply was an individual reply, but in many cases ‘we’ and ‘us’ was used. This could be indicative that these students did see it as a group activity (which it was intended to be). A couple of quotes from one of the students on this point
“We liked this activity because it help us work as a team.”
“We really enjoyed ourselves over the last 4 days. We found it very useful.”

Students at Thomas Becket Catholic School, Northampton, UK

Students at Thomas Becket Catholic School have been working with the University of Northampton's School of Science and Technology on the junkbots project.


Kerrie Henton, Vice Principal at Thomas Becket Catholic School said 'We are committed to environmental sustainability at Thomas Becket and any opportunity we can give our students to engage in an exciting learning opportunity that is good for the community is something we couldn't turn down. The students and staff supporting the project have had an excellent time and the robots they produced from rubbish are just superb'

A Student  (14) said 'It's been very good and great fun and it has made me realise aspects about the environment that I never realised before. We have even found ways to save the school money which I am sure the Head will be pleased about'.

Introduction

The School of Science and Technology at the University of Northampton have been working with local schools to create robots made from junk. This is an initiative by the University to introduce environmental sustainability, engineering and computing to students and has been been funded by Northampton Enterprise Limited and east midlands development agency (emda).


This project sets out to engage pupils with a set of activities over four three-hour sessions that provides an insight into STEM subjects. The workshops will be structured in the following way:
(a)Session 1: Introduction to waste management, its impact, recycling and reuse. An introduction to the idea of making robots from rubbish.
(b)Two sessions involving guided exercises.
· Session 2: Involves some problem-solving exercises (approx. ½ hour), then in groups investigate adding ‘junk’ with a new electrical components such as batteries and motors to use vibrations to move the robots.
· Session 3: To apply some of the ideas on problem solving and use of materials developed previously to build a little junk-clearing robot.
· Lego based robots are provided with two light sensors;
· a play area (containing borders and area for the junk to be placed);
The facilitators will help with programming the robots and the instructions to be used.
(c) The final session will involve the students, with the help of the facilitators, demonstrating and presenting their group’s solutions.
a. Each group will present their work to the other groups in a way they feel is most appropriate- with facilitators help if needed.
b. An hour tinkering time before the presentation will be given to solve any last minute problems.
The project aims to provide an opportunity for year 9 or 10 pupils to meet a range of people working or training in STEM subjects; the selection of the facilitators aims to have diverse mix of ethnicity to attempt to dispel stereotypes of scientists and engineers.

Details can be found at the project site including some example exercises.

For further details please contact: Scott.turner@northampton.ac.uk or +44 1604 893028

Recent interest:
http://northamptonenterprise.cgml1.com/NorthantsEntlz/lz.aspx?p1=0520373S871&CC=&p=3&cID=0&cValue=1