Your Assignments for Thursday and Friday, 13-14 March, 2008

There should be plenty to do for two days between the three items below.  If you can't keep yourself occupied with these jobs, find a way to keep yourself occupied that keeps your quiet behind in a seat.  And I made an edit below from previous days.  See if you can find it.  (hint: it's underlined)

Gears Investigation

Complete the activities described by the material in the Robotics Engineering curriculum.

C:\Program Files\Robotics Engineering\Volume 1\index.htm

Click on the Projects tab and complete item #6. (it has 2 parts!)

Your job is to complete the objectives presented by the questions on the pages I printed and cut for you.  The three people that were absent on Wednesday should ask Mr. Adams for a copy.  He has one with your name on it in his folder.  If I had thought of it sooner, I'd have had your partner pick one up for you.  It's not my fault they weren't thoughtful to begin with!!

There are scissors to cut off excess white spaces on the front table in a box.  You can use this method  to save space.  Some tips to completing this  task...

• If it's a prompt to record data, please just record the data in the table.
• If it's a calculation, do the calculation in the space provided.  If there isn't enough space, use a logical place in your notebook.  Except for maybe the averages.  Seriously, you do know how to do an average, right?  And did you enjoy my incomplete sentence?
• If it's a question, answer it on the lined portion in your notebook in an logical, organized place.  This is where you can take advantage of all of that space you saved by trimming excess white space.

Long Term Objective:  Z-Race

The Z-race was introduced to you Wednesday in class.  Check the board for specifics on the board.  I am fairly certain the entire board was cut from a 4'x4' square.  The lanes are 10" wide.  You can figure out the angles and all for yourself with that info.  If there are any corrections to this data, I will notify you on Monday.

In the meantime, you could "mock-up" a course on the floor using masking tape.  You may need to find some masking tape as mine seems to keep disappearing.  Just be sure not to leave it on the floor all summer or it will look like the mess in the center of the room! (oopsie!)

Classwork/Homework  (due Mon, Mar 17)

How do sensors work?

More specifically, how do our Lego NXT sensors work?  For each sensor, please respond to the following prompts.  Devote at least one page in your notebook to each sensor, each with a corresponding title.

1. How does this sensor work?  Be as specific as possible regarding the physical / electrical devices and principles that this sensor relies upon.  You will probably need to do some research.  I recommend the Internet as a first source.
2. Is this an analog or a digital sensor?  Explain how you know this.  Describe the type of signal that the sensor sends to the NXT and how the NXT interprets this information.  Once again, you will likely need to refer to an outside source.
3. Explain in detail two unique tasks that could be accomplished using this sensor.  Explain how the sensor would need to be "installed" and what would need to be done from the programming side to accomplish this task.