The Week Junior UK – 24 August 2019

24

Do something

The Week Junior•24 August 2019

Building robots

Learn more...

● Formoreinformationon

robotsandtheirhistory,watch

thevideoheretinyurl.com/

TWJ-realrobots

● Fordetailsonhowtobuild

aRaspberryPibuggy,checkout

tinyurl.com/TWJ-robotbuggy

What aboutifIj ustwant

to programarobot?

Kits whereyou just code therobot

will do some of thecomplicated

stuff for you, andcanhelp get you

started,”says Applegate.“Youcan

increase the amount you do later.”

Ozobots followaline drawing, and

the Jaderobot canchase light.

Howmuchdoesitc ost?

Some kitscanbeexpensive, but

thereare ways to build yourrobots

using things around the house.

“You canbuild an arm with

card board, straws, string,”adding it

to akit such as an Arduino (a low-

cost computer kit), says Applegate.

“Robots don’t need to be electronic

when you first build them.”

HOW, WHAT,

WHERE?

What doIneed?

MatthewApplegate runsthe

Creative Computing Club in Ipswich,

Suffolk. He says,“TheLego

Mindstorms kits areamazing and

the Phenoptix MeArm is good.You

canuse card board, glue sticksand

string to makeaprototype.”

REX SHUTTERSTOCK

·GETTY IMAGES

R

obots arefun to play with, but did you know that they are

equally fun to build? Don’t worry,it’seasier than you may

think.Youdon’t have to know lots about electronics or be a

whizz at engineering to haveagoatcreating your own

robot. Thereare lots of simple kits andresourcesavailable

that makeite asy to buildabot in your ow

and if you don’t feelconfident enough to h

at home, thereare plenty of clubs that offe

in robot-building for young people.

“Creating arobot teaches you in great

about how it is put together and how it wo

says Steve Hubbard, of RobotFun, which

hostsrobotics masterclasses for children in

Suffolk.“Asyou build and testarobot, you

also learn how to fix it when things go

wrong, as they always do.”

What iscertain is that it takes patience

and perseverance, so that when youcompl

your robot and then program it, thereisno

greater feeling than seeing it whirr into life and follow your

commands.“Building and programmingarobot isapractical

application of scienceand engineering,”says Hubbard.“It’s

agreat wayofl earning how to solve all sorts of problems.”

Youdon’t need a y special skills to haveagoat

infact, Hubbardsays that if you

go or drawaline, youcanbuild

ot. Youcan build them at

at festivals and museums, or

birthday party.

ng botscanhelp you in many

t ways.“It develops skills that

ly useful to have, whatever

r choiceyou makeint he future,”

says Hubbard.“Science, music,

architecture, art, engineering –

all of thesecare ers need people

able to think clearly and to solve

ems in many differentways.”

Learnaboutelectronicsandcodingby...

“YOUMIGHTBE

SURPRISED”

ding robots is

reatasi t’sreally

nteresting to

earn how to

opy the human

dy.Itw asn’t

easy at first, but

you get better,and

you might be surprised how much

you cando. The coolest part is

when you seearobot you have

built come to life. It is an amazing

achievement. I’d liketobuild a

robot thatcanhelp with search

and rescue, or go into dangerous

places so people don’t have to.

Name:

James

Buil

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in

le

co

body

Name:

WOW!

Thefirs

trobotw

as

dpigeon

urcesavailable Youdont need a

sa

Youmight learn about

robotics in school.

Lego makes

programmablerobots.