Egr100
Fall 1999
Ileana Streinu
Doreen Weinberger

Topics

• Introduction to the course. 15 min.
• Watch video with student Lego robot projects from the Summer Science program. Goal:
  • See what can be done with the MindStorms kit.
  • Get a sense of what works and what may not work.
  • Get a sense of the limitations of the technology.
• Students split into teams of two. Each team gets the Lego MindStorms kit with the final project of the summer students, adapter, ziplock bags.
• Look at the robot, try to match it with what you've seen in the video. Get a sense of how it was done. Then take it apart (heart-breaking as it may feel :-)). Sort the Lego parts, put them in ziplock bags.. Find the list of parts at the end of the book. Identify and become familiar with the kind of parts in the kit.
• A short description of how we handle batteries. Recharging before charging. How to measure voltage with the Digital Multimeter (DMM). Box with dead batteries and box with recharged batteries.
• A short "sermon" on the "+ tip" polarity for the adapter. You fry the RSX brick if you do it improperly!
• Get class accounts on grendel. To be used for email and lab-reports.