Junkbots

I came across a series of very cool videos from a YouTubber "Make with Me", that fit very well with the ethos of the Junkbots project and this blog. Here are a few of them: Worth subscribing to their channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZvmzmENvrnMmCd8ZAqcA2w c For plans and resources from Junkbot project go to  https://junkbots.blogspot.com/2012/06/junkbot-project-case-study-and-session.html If you would like to know more about the Junkbots project contact scott.turner@northampton.ac.uk

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

Guest Blogger Nathaniel Roberts, Nuffield Research Placement Student working at the University of Northampton. Nuffield Research Placement scheme provides students in their first year of a post16 course to work with STEM professionals  http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/nuffield-research-placements . Toilet Roll Junkbot Nathaniel Roberts Cut a slit in a toilet roll. Cut another toilet roll in half, then arrange the pieces in a T. Feed the bottom of the T into the slit, and tape together. Cut two lines into the edge, and do the same on the opposite side of the circle. Copy this for the other side of the tube. These geared motors from the Camjam EduKit 3 should fit into those gaps. Stick a battery pack to the back, and use crocodile clips to wire it all up to a crumble. The battery pack can connect to the + and - on either side at the top of the crumble, and the motors connect to the + and - of their respective sides of the crumble. Using a Micro...

Junkbots ( http://junkbots.blogspot.co.uk/ ) are based around using  materials such as drink's cans, broken propellors and motors to produce something that moves by vibration. Previous designs be found at: Raspberry Pi Controlled Junkbots Junkbots blog The latest tweak to the Raspberry Pi based Junkbot design is to use the combination of Python and Pimoroni's  Explorer HAT PRO  to control it. Explorer HAT Pro is a good choice, it can control two motors with a library provided to simplify the programming. For this the Junkbot was the one shown above: a drinks can, pen, LEGO bits, motor and broken propellor. Before the Explorer HAT can be used the library needs to be installed via the Terminal and the instructions below curl get.pimoroni.com/explorerhat | bash Python code to control the junkbot is shown below. import explorerhat from time import sleep def spin1(duration):     explorerhat.motor.one.forward(100)     sleep(durati...

New landmark in the junkbots project - junkbots delivered by someone else. @STEMatUN Junkbots Challenge at the Discovering Science Day, which do you think was the fastest? pic.twitter.com/Dg7SisTSas — NevaBeast (@NevaBeast) March 25, 2015 For more details: on the junkbots project go to:  http://junkbots.blogspot.co.uk/   on the work developed and a case study can be found at:  http://www.hestem-sw.org.uk/project?id=16&pp=540  or   http://projects.hestem-sw.org.uk/upload/Junkbot_june_northampton.pdf  in-school session plan can be found at:  http://projects.hestem-sw.org.uk/upload/Planning_Process_junkbots_KS3_4_longer.docx STEM club session plan can be found at:  http://projects.hestem-sw.org.uk/upload/Planning_Process_junkbots_primary_short8.docx This and other posters at Engage 2013 can be found at:  https://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/engage2013/poster-party If you would like to know more about t...

About - LEGO Mindstorms Junkbots : "The idea behind the LEGO Mindstorms Junkbots is to bring together the motors of the LEGO and use them to power the robot which is otherwise created from junk. The key aims of the project are; To give children at a KS2 primary school level an insight into what can be achieved through the use of simple programming. To provide a fun and engaging activity for children to be creative and design their own robots. To use the robots and programming software to achieve basic movements of the Junkbots. The original junkbots project combined the idea of using motors and vibrations to move the bots with limited control however the new project uses the idea of programming to add a further element of control and as such the simplicity of the self contained NXT device was decided upon as a branch of this. Aiming the project at KS1 and KS2 gives the opportunity to introduce basic programming from a young age and demonstrate just one of the interesti...

First video of a junkbot being controlled by a Raspberry Pi. The bot was developed by Hayden Tetley and Scott Turner. Hayden's time was paid  for through the Nuffield Research Placements  Scheme ( http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/nuffield-research-placements ). Next post will provide further details on how this was done. If you would like to know more about the Junkbots project contact scott.turner@northampton.ac.uk

A development I have being wanting to develop for a while is the combine the Raspberry Pi with a Junkbot to add some control.  This the first of postings about these experiments. All the development will be around ScratchGPIO ( http://cymplecy.wordpress.com/scratchgpio/ ) so this posting will look into its use . Why ScratchGPIO? Short answer - simplicity. It is designed to look and work like Scratch ( http://scratch.mit.edu/ ) but allowing access to board that can drive motors. Installing ScratchGPIO? As a suggest use as lastest as possible version of the operating system as you can on your SD card. Initially we had trouble with missing Python files that was resolved when using an updated version of the operating system. In the LXTerminal Type in: sudo wget http://goo.gl/Pthh62 -O isgh5.sh then type in sudo bash isgh5.sh You should get to new icons for ScratchGPIO5 and ScratchGPIO5Plus Now use these instead of the Scratch that came with the operating...

In a recent post ( http://junkbots.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/junkbot-project-evolves1-idea.html ) we looked at the adding Mindstorm NXT brick and motors to a drinks can to produce a junkbot. Here are some videos showing it in action: For more information on how this was done go to:  http://legojunkbots.weebly.com/uploads/3/7/2/2/37227791/nuffield_nxt_mindstorms.docx or  http://legojunkbots.weebly.com / If you would like to know more about the Junkbots project contact scott.turner@northampton.ac.uk

Taken from:  http://computingnorthampton.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/physical-computing-junkbots-with-brain.html Figure 1 A new stage for the Junkbots project ( http://junkbots.blogspot.co.uk/  ) starts this week. Up to this point the junk bot building has largely being about building a moving (or drawing) 'bot' moved by vibration - limited control, but fun. This week, A  Nuffield funded bursary studen t starts working on investigating whether LEGO NXT or Raspberry Pi based solutions can be incorporated with the bot to add some control of the movement (still by vibration). Idea One  Is to add a LEGO NXT brick, plus motors that are made to vibrate, to a junkbot similar to one shown in figure 1. The motor and broken propeller combination being replaced with the NXT brick and LEGO motor. A good potential feature is it a self-contained unit with power and control together, as well as being potentially fairly simple to set-up. Idea Two Is to do a similar approach as...

A recent paper was presented by John Sinclair and co-authored by  Stuart Allen, Linda Davis-Sinclair, Trish Goodchild, Julie Messenger, and Scott Turner  a t Northampton Learning and Teaching Conference 2014- Northampton 2018: Planning, Designing and Delivering Student Success  about STEM outreach and employability.  Elements of junkbots were one of the science activities forming part of the activities aiming to empower students. Enhancing student employability skills through partnership working in STEM outreach. from Scott Turner Enhancing student employability skills through partnership working in STEM outreach John Sinclair, Stuart Allen, Linda Davis, Trish Goodchild, Julie Messenger, Scott Turner Contact details: john.sinclair@northampton.ac.uk Abstract: For over a decade, University of Northampton staff and students have delivered successful STEM outreach activities, master classes and co-working opportunities to learners in ...

Videos and comments from the Robot Day at Hartwell Primary School can now be found at the following link   Robot Day! | Class4 2013 Quote from the page "The whole class had a fantistic time and really enjoyed the challenge."      For more information about the activities go to  http://computingnorthampton.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/robots-in-hartwell.html

Junkbots on Prezi If you would like to know more about the Junkbots project contact scott.turner@northampton.ac.uk

Friday 16th March 2012, the junkbots project moved to year 6 at Roade Primary School.  The aim was to Look in to how to use electric motors to make junk move, along with the effect of weight, surface contact effects and positioning of the weights. The task was to make something that could move along a table as quickly as possible. Good example is the 'sleigh' shown above, a mixture of straws, yoghurt pots, pens, plastics and electric motors. What was especially good about this one was - it went in a straight line, shaking its way along and even carried its batteries. This was especially good as usually these junkbots have a tendency to spin around. The group that developed this one investigated repositioning the batteries, thereby adjusting the weight to get it to travel in a straight line. Thank you to the year 6 at Roade Primary School for inviting me, lots of budding engineers there. If you want to know more about Junkbots please contact:  scott.turner@northampto...

Ceisie2011 conf View more presentations from Scott Turner 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.

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 ... "

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! 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.

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

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/