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In productionRobotics certificate program

Rover Workshop

Every robot does three things: it senses, it decides and it acts. Students take each part in turn, then put them together to design a robot for a job of their choosing.

  • 5 weeks
  • Robotics
  • Ages 9 to 14

Opening later

Start with Mission to Mars

What students learn

  • 1

    What makes a robot

    The sense, decide, act loop that every robot runs, from vacuum cleaners to Mars rovers.

  • 2

    How sensors see

    How a machine measures distance, light and touch, and what it does with the numbers.

  • 3

    How motion works

    Gears, wheels and levers: trading speed for strength, and back again.

  • 4

    How code decides

    Loops and if-then rules, written first on paper and then as real instructions.

Five weeks, week by week

This program is still being made. The outline below is the plan, and details may change before it opens.

  1. 1Week 1

    Meet the machine

    What a robot is, and what it is not.

    • Sense, decide, act
    • Robots around the house
    • Taking a simple machine apart on paper

  2. 2Week 2

    Sensing

    How a robot knows what is around it.

    • Measuring distance with sound and light
    • Touch and bump sensors
    • When sensors are wrong

  3. 3Week 3

    Moving

    Turning a spinning motor into useful motion.

    • Gears: speed against strength
    • Wheels, legs and tracks
    • Arms and grippers

  4. 4Week 4

    Deciding

    Instructions a machine can follow.

    • Step-by-step programs
    • Loops and if-then rules
    • Following a line, avoiding a wall

  5. 5Week 5

    Your robot

    Design a robot for a real job.

    • Choosing a job worth doing
    • Sketching the sensors and motion it needs
    • Presenting the design

Things to build

From things already in the house. No kit to buy.

  • A cardboard robot hand moved by strings
  • A gear train from bottle caps
  • A paper maze and a program that crosses it

Final project, week 5

Design a robot for a job

Choose a job, decide what the robot must sense and how it must move, and write the rules it follows. An instructor reviews the design and sends feedback.

Finish every lesson, pass each quiz and get the project approved to earn the certificate, which downloads as a PDF with an ID anyone can check.

Other programs

  • Mission to MarsRockets, orbits, rovers and the AI that steers them, in one five-week mission.
  • Machines That LearnHow computers learn from examples, and where they get it wrong.
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