Junkbots

Capturing some of the tweets about Junkbots at Mozilla Festival 2017 #Mozfest  https://mozillafestival.org/   great Crumble session 2day at #mozfest from @scottturneruon . Micro-egg bots!!! @RedfernElec @Baggiepr Great stepping stone into CrumbleBots! pic.twitter.com/0TZ2vr4Qat — Nic Hughes (@duck_star) October 29, 2017 @AlwaysComputing Look at what you're missing... pic.twitter.com/DrpEAy51r8 — Alan O'Donohoe (@teknoteacher) October 29, 2017 Great day at #mozfest . Till next year. Again met meant inspiring people and saw awesome ideas! Plus anyone I missed! pic.twitter.com/eL52cRIMwE — Nic Hughes (@duck_star) October 29, 2017 Details of the activity can be found at http://bit.ly/2yZ3dZT If you would like to know more about the Junkbots project contact scott.turner@northampton.ac.uk

Junkbots – it is not one thing! : Turner S (2013)  Junkbots – it is not one thing!   Engage 2013 27-28th September 2013 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 funded by Northampton Enterprise Limited and east midlands development agency (emda).  For more details on the junkbots project go to:  http://junkbots.blogspot.co.uk/   This and other posters at Engage 2013 can be found at:  https://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/engage2013/poster-party 'via Blog this'

This week the junkbots idea were taken to South End Infant School, Rushden, Northamptonshire as part of their Science week....and it was good fun for me as well.  In three groups they played with: - The hovercraft idea that Hayley developed ( http://junkbots-hayleystevenson.blogspot.com/2011/08/hovercraft-do-i-need-motor.html ). Basically a balloon, CD and a sports bottle top, that floats across a table. - The basic junkbot - A drinks can, two markers, broken propeller, a motor and battery pack, - The new junkbot takes basic the junkbot and rearranges so it stands on the pen tips. Now add a third pen and we have a less elegant Picassobot . Start it up on some paper and (hopefully) watch it wriggle and draw. All this in one hour!

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 ... "

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 .

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.

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).

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 outrigg...

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 le...

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" (Studen...

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...

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 th...

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. S ome 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 a...

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...

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'.

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 appl...