Junkbots in Irchester

The lego robots used in the Junkbots work were recently taken to Irchester Community Primary School as part of their Jobs in Science Week.

The students programmed the robots (using a real programming language Java) using a choice of four commands to make the robots do a dance of their own design.

From more details about the Lab_13 activities: http://www.irchester.northants.sch.uk/downloads/newsletters/Lab13/LAB%2013%20-%20Issue%201%20Newsletter.pdf

Lego and 'Junk' - new Junkbot

A lego controlled junkbot has been produced, Hayley Stevenson has produced a walking model from straws and cotton. Together we combined this with two motors from LEGO NXT set and wrote some java code to get it to move. More details can be found at: http://junkbots-hayleystevenson.blogspot.com/2011/08/day-18-my-last-day.html including video of it working.

LEGO arrangement

The walking model

This has new junkbot is very much in-line with the ideas behind the projects, combining engineering, waste and computing to produce something new.

Junkbots - Nuffield Bursary Placement: Day 16 - Modelling and tying up loose ends!

Junkbots - Nuffield Bursary Placement: Day 16 - Modelling and tying up loose ends!: "Morning! So today I began by Modelling my Programming Insect JunkBot, made from 6 straws and only took 10 minutes to make. Pleased with th..."

Trialing the new material

The new material developed as part of the Nuffield burary work has been tested to find out what one of the target audiences think about the new models. See Junkbots - Nuffield Bursary Placement: Day 13 - Programming for more detail.

Reblogged Junkbots - Nuffield Bursary Placement: HoverBot Go Crazy!

Junkbots - Nuffield Bursary Placement: HoverBot Go Crazy!: "Afternoon! Ok, so after going out for supplies I have built my prototype Hovercraft, and its fun to play with! As Scott noted, there are..."

Junkbots - Nuffield Bursary Placement: Hovercraft.. Do I need a motor? :)

Junkbots - Nuffield Bursary Placement: Hovercraft.. Do I need a motor? :): "Hey Guys, Well I have been experimenting with the hovercraft idea, and have made a few discoveries! The CD is easier to control if it ha..."

Junkbots - Nuffield Bursary Placement: Day 9 - The Fan Racer comes to Life!

Taken from: Junkbots - Nuffield Bursary Placement: Day 9 - The Fan Racer comes to Life!
"...added 'insect leg' supports! Basically the supports run the full length of the can, then come off at an angle to keep the fan at the back counterbalanced. (Theyare called insect supports because the FanRacer now looks like a Fly ..."

Junkbots - Nuffield Bursary Placement: Day 8 - Age of the FanRacer!

Junkbots - Nuffield Bursary Placement: Day 8 - Age of the FanRacer!: " Morning, So far today I have completed my worksheet for the PicaasoBot, I got the photos I needed and inserted them, so now that is all d..."

Junkbots - Nuffield Bursary Placement: Day 7 - Worksheets Continue!

Junkbots - Nuffield Bursary Placement: Day 7 - Worksheets Continue!: "Hello! Today i have been continuing with my worksheets. For this I have written the instructions for building the FanRacer, and I have com..."

Junkbots - Nuffield Bursary Placement: Day 6 - The Worksheets Begin!

Junkbots - Nuffield Bursary Placement: Day 6 - The Worksheets Begin!: "Heya Today I began by doing a rough design for my trike. After some thought I realized that skis may be better than wheels, because it was..."

Junkbots - Nuffield Bursary Placement: Day 5 - Completed PicassoBot! : D

Junkbots - Nuffield Bursary Placement: Day 5 - Completed PicassoBot! : D: "Afternoon I have spent this afternoon building a new PicassoBot from scratch, so I can photograph each stage to add to my instructions. ..."

Make Magazine: Lolly stick Robot

This is an interesting video I came across and fits with the Junk bot idea



MAKE | How-To: Make a PopsicleBot 6-Legged Walker
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/07/how-to-make-a-popsiclebot-6-legged-walker.html

Junkbots - Nuffield Bursary Placement: Day 2 - DoodleBot meets JunkBot!

Junkbots - Nuffield Bursary Placement: Day 2 - DoodleBot meets JunkBot!

Hayley is a Nuffield Bursary student working on the Junkbots project. The link above is to her blog about the project. If you want to see what can be done with pens, cardboard, straws, broken fan, a motor, batteries and wires this is a good place to look.

Theo Jansen creates new creatures | Video on TED.com

Artist Theo Jansen building moving sculptures from platic tubes, bottles, etc. Not really a junkbot but some interesting ideas from an engineering point of view.

Theo Jansen creates new creatures | Video on TED.com

Junkbots goes to Guilsbourough School

The junkbots activities were carried out in four one hour sessions at Guilsborough School, Northamptonshire.

Pictures from the event:

New site for Junkbots

The junkbots project website is now available at:
http://www.web-sustainablity.net/junkbots/




Mobile version at:
http://mobile.web-sustainablity.net/site/junkbots/www.computing.northampton.ac.uk/_scott/Junkbots.html

Award for Junkbots

The University of Northampton has recently recognised the work on the Junkbot project with an award for achievement for Volunteering at the Volunteering awards ceremony.

More details can be found at: http://tunis.northampton.ac.uk/2011/06/09/staff-recognised-at-annual-volunteering-awards/

Toys from trash

Arvind Gupta has produced a lot of work on turning junk into toys that aim to demonstrate the engineering ideas in an very interesting (well I think so any way).

He has presented a very interesting talk on the TED site shown above. He presents this all in a passionate and entertaining way, well worth having a look at.

More details of his work can be found by clicking on here.

...junkbots continues

The funding may have unfortunately stopped but the activities continue. On 30th March the Junkbots activities return to Brooke Weston School.


The students had to build a 'junkbot' from initially a motor and propeller and any 'junk' that was around. There were three tasks.
1. The junkbot had to get a can across a line.
2. Similar to the previous activity but this time as well as the can there was other junk (bottle tops and some small steel bits) away from the can. These also had to be transferred across the line.
3. To make the junkbots steerable.


It was never the intention that all the tasks were achieved in the time, but the student's tried out their own groups ideas with little input from the tutors.


Some very innovative results were produced.


Thank you to Mr Nigel Barratt for inviting me back and supporting the activities.


Teacher Mr Barrett said: ‘The students just got on with it and devised the models themselves. They experimented all the way through. It was three and a half lessons of having a go, coming across problems and then solving them themselves. If they got stuck we gave them a little push in the right direction. They have all learned a great deal and they were all fully engaged with the project, giving it their maximum effort.’ (Freeman, 2011)


For more details and comments made from the school follow this link.


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


Freeman C (2011) "Junkbots Project 2011" [online] URL: http://www.brookeweston.org/News/NewsItem.aspx?Id=809 accessed on: 7th April 2011.

CEISE2011 paper: Junkbots

An abstract from the 7th China – Europe International Symposium on Software Industry Orientated Education to be held 23-24th May 2011 at School of Science and Technology, University of Northampton, UK. For more details can be found at this link.

Junkbots

Scott Turner

School of Science and Technology, University of Northampton,

Northampton, NN2 6JD

                                  

Abstract: The School of Science and Technology at the University of Northampton have been working with local schools to create robots made from junk and also to use robots programmed by the students to perform simple rubbish clearing exercises. This is an initiative by the University to introduce environmental sustainability, engineering and computing to students in schools. This paper focuses on the programming part of the project, providing reflections on the activities.

A new era for junkbots

The funding for the junkbots project has now come to an end.So what were the outcomes.

Figure 1Overall Results

Figure 1 shows how the overall score for the whole project. Overall the student were satisfied/ok (around 3) or more than satisfied ( 4 or 5). There seems to be a linkage between the junkbot building exercises and the overall satisfaction ratings. Programming on the whole had slightly lower satisfaction scores but ok scores.

Figure 2: Comparison of the overall event scores across the schools.

Figure 2 shows scores for the overall project for each school. Overall as mentioned previous the response is very positive (all the results were 89% or higher 3,4, or 5 ratings). There were variations in the level of satisfaction. The school were students were selected the student's based on ability or interest tended to have satisfaction scores that were higher.Does this mean the approaches are more suited to the gifted and talented. Probably not as the satisfaction scores were reasonable for all the schools.

Figure 3: Comparison of the junkbots ratings across the schools.

Figure 3 shows  the ratings for the junkbot building activity alone. As has already been observed they are similar to the overall event results but there are variations between schools. One school in particular the results for this activity were lower, one possible reason for this was the age of the students, this was the youngest group.

Figure 4: Comparison of the robot programming ratings across the schools.

Figure 4 shows the ratings for the exercises involving programming LEGO robots to solve the junk clearing tasks built with the junkbots previously.  This was always likely to be most challenging of the tasks. Very few if any of the students had done any programming before, so been all new, with only one robot per group was always likely to be a concern. In reality the results were on the whole very good and what the some of the students did with the robots actually was very impressive.

Is it a success?
Yes the satisfaction scores are good, the students produced some very good designs and in the case of programming robots in Java did something that the schools probably haven't got the capacity to do on their own (though robots in school has a long history). The students got to meet practising STEM professionals and students. So thank you to all the schools who have taken part, as well as the university students and staff who took part.

Where next?
Even though the funding has finished, the project carries on. Activities from the project will carry on, as an example, one of the schools we worked with previously we will be working with on the 30th March 2011 building junkbots.

Huxlow Pt 2: Lego Robots

 The second half (programming lego robots) on the junkbots project has been carried out at Huxlow Science College on 28th February 2011.

At the start of the day most of the students had not previously programmed a robot or (knowingly) a computer.

The first task was to get the robot to collect some rubbish and push it over a line and then move back to the another line. All groups programmed the robot to do this and some groups add a sweeper to the front of the robot to push several items at once across the line.

The second task was to get the robot to collect the rubbish this time, but without adding any attachments to the front of the robot. Several groups successfully did this, by programming the robot to follow a path that collected the rubbish (drinks cans) and put them behind the line.

The third and fourth tasks involved the use of a sensor:
-To build the robot that did not move unless there was a can in front of the robot.
-To build a robot that went around the can when it detected it.

Some of these students went from never programming to programming robots that could react to objects all in one day.

Feedback from this group for the junkbots activity (figure 1)  and the lego robot (figure 2) activities was generally good. Thank you to all those who took part.

Figure 1: Junkbot activity (Day 1)

Figure 2: Lego Robots (Day 2)

Huxlow Part 1:waste management activities and turning junk into junkbots

Figure 1

 The first half (waste management activities and turning junk into robots) on the junkbots project has been carried out at Huxlow Science College on 15th February 2011.

Some interesting designs were produced for junkbots that could clear up a range of 'rubbish'. These included:
- one based around a milk carton, wheels and propellor at the back that was very quick.It included a scoop at the front to sweep up rubbish as it went.(see figures 1 and 2).

Figure 2

 - one based around a bottle with legs that vibrated along. This one included a magnet at the back that could pick up small metal items(figure 3,4 and 5)

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

-A third one included a scoop that designed to scoop up the rubbish as it moved forward.

How to build junkbots: Wheels don’t always work well

Back to the main approach, simplest way and probably the quickest:- A body (drinks can and drinks bottles usually) and an unbalanced motor - shaking its way around. The vibration makes the junkbot move but it is not controllable.

The 'homemade' nature of creating wheels and axles, and without direct drive usually lead to the junkbots based around wheels not moving easily (it was different when wheeled toys were used instead). Homemade 'legs' though did often work. 

Here are some examples:

The first one used a drinks bottle and legs and was capable of carrying a can on its 'back'.

The second used a tripod arrangement of legs.

Remember though – keep the weight down, extra decoration is fun but usually lead to slower junkbots (or in some cases stationary junkbots).