Drivetrains are comprised of the components that enable a robot to move, including the chassis, motors, wheels, gears, and transmission systems. A drivetrain can take many different forms depending on factors such as the terrain, speed requirements, and payload capacity of the robot. In this unit, participants will build and evaluate several types of drivetrains as preparation to design a custom drivetrain that can climb over obstacles.
Data Collection and Analysis with SPIKE Prime provides students with a hands-on learning experience focused on data collection, analysis, and problem-solving skills using the SPIKE Prime robot and Color Sensor. Through engaging activities and challenges, students learn the importance of data logging in scientific inquiry and problem-solving, in a real-world context.
Autonomous Systems are comprised of hardware and software enabling machines to operate independently. In this unit, participants will configure their JetBot, including software, network requirements, assembly, and initial operation.
Participants inventory, tear down, rebuild, and learn to fly a classroom drone. This hands-on exercise emphasizes the importance of knowing each part of the drone and its function. Participants complete a timed challenge to assemble the drone from its fully disassembled state and navigate it through an obstacle course.
Skills Developed: Identifying parts, fluent teardown/rebuild, battery health and routines, understanding flight axes, twin-stick UAS control scheme, understanding PID control, teamwork with spotter, working under pressure, inventory management, and documentation.
Autonomous systems like the JetBot can be configured to navigate using pre-programmed routines, operator teleoperation, or a blend of both. This unit guides participants through motion control, precise navigation techniques, and teleoperation.
Sensors enable robots to perceive their environment and make autonomous decisions. In this unit, participants perform sensor integration, utilizing GPIO (General Purpose Input Output), digital inputs and outputs, an IMU (Inertial Measurement Units), motor encoders, IR (infrared) cameras, and LiDAR.
Drone joust is part flag football and part marathon – points are scored for taking flags and forcing down opposing drones, but the longer you can stay in the game, the more opportunities you have to score.
Participants compete in a 2v2 drone joust that rewards smart flying, power management, understanding of avionics sensors, and diligence in battery maintenance. Participants navigate challenges involving airflow disruption, ground/ceiling effects, and the tradeoff between speed and stability while utilizing optical flow sensors. This exercise promotes the practical application of drone control and teamwork under competitive conditions.
Skills Developed: Maintainer habits, UAS operation, teamwork, power management.
To prepare to navigate unknown environments, autonomous systems are often trained with data from known environments. This unit emphasizes the importance of data collection and labeling for applications like Collision Avoidance and Path Following. Participants will perform supervised learning techniques, utilizing Classification for detecting obstacles and Regression for path prediction.
Participants autonomously navigate a static series of obstacles using simple command sequences. They plan flight paths, input sequential commands with a block-based IDE, and execute basic autonomous patterns (launch, wait, recover). This exercise emphasizes the importance of proportionality calculations and addresses the challenges of open-loop control.
AprilTags are a special type of marker that allows a robot to know its precise position (localization) and orientation (pose estimation) for accurate navigation. In this unit, participants calibrate the camera to improve AprilTag detection accuracy and leverage ROS (Robot Operating System) to perform waypoint navigation with the AprilTag markers.
Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) is a technique used in robotics to build a map of an environment while simultaneously keeping track of the robot's location within it. In this unit, participants configure ROS to communicate over a network, allowing the JetBot to transmit LiDAR data used to generate a high-fidelity map in an Ubuntu Virtual Machine.
Participants challenge each other to piloting or maintainer tasks of their own making. Themes for each day include flying challenges, teamwork challenges, head-to-head challenges, and troubleshooting and repair challenges.
Skills Developed: Reinforcement of prior unit skills, including piloting, maintenance, teamwork, and troubleshooting.
Reinforcement Learning is a type of machine learning where a robot learns to make decisions through trial-and-error. In Autonomous Racing, the robot learns through trial-and-error as it drives on the track. In this unit, participants collect data from the track, train and visualize the base model, and then provide feedback to the robot as it learns to race.
Participants work together to lift a payload using only their own drones. This exercise emphasizes mission planning, flight plan development, team coordination, and adapting to unexpected conditions. Students will calculate components of lifting force and understand how to sum and cancel force vectors from multiple sources.
Skills Developed: Mission planning, flight plan development, team planning, coordinated multi-robot operation, considering risk, adapting to unexpected conditions, calculating relevant components of oblique forces.
In this unit, you will learn how to use the sensors on the SPIKE Prime virtual robot. You will program your robot to perform simple sensing behaviors and respond to objects in its environment.
This badge is a sample activity from the full Coding and Computational Thinking with Virtual SPIKE Prime curriculum. In this activity, you will learn how to program the movement of a Virtual SPIKE Prime robot from directly within your web browser while completing challenges themed after the real-world Iris Rover from Carnegie Mellon University. Virtual SPIKE
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