External Resources

Practice Design Work

Practice Software Programming

This is meant to be informative in order to help you making educated purchase decision.

You will need :

1. RobotC programming Software
2. The Mindstorms Robot Core Kit
3. For RCJ Competition ONLY: Additional devices.

RobotC Programming Software

Mindstorms Robot Core Kit

For RCJ Competition ONLY:

In addition, at our robotics club, we heavily stress on the proper design process.  They will need to practice their mechanical design work using www.lucidchart.com. Again, this is a free software, unless you start to create bigger project which requires a pages of design.

Books and software for Mechanical Building

Most under-estimate the difficulty when it comes to building. Being able to seat still to build a LEGO Taj Mahal for hours does not nearly translate to ability of creating a mobile robot with sound structure. Thus, learning the building concepts presented with focus on each mechanical effect, such as simple machines is indeed extremely helpful.

Do not underestimate the value of the following books just because it uses LEGO parts, or require only few pieces. The great value of these books is the ability to present the true mechanical building skill without the heavy cost in time and materials because of the high reusability.

Excellent small building exercises (highly recommended).

• The Unofficial LEGO Technic Builder's Guide by Pawel "Sariel" Kmiec : ISBN-10: 1593274343
• The LEGO Technic Idea Book: Simple Machines by Yoshihito Isogawa : ISBN-10: 1593272774
• The LEGO Technic Idea Book: Fantastic Contraptions by Yoshihito Isogawa : ISBN-10: 1593272790

If you do not own a Mindstorms set: If you are not ready to invest over $400 on a set and its software, but want your child to strengthnen their mechanical intuition, I highly recommend the following:

1. Using the design work with LEGO Digital Design to design their contraption. This will build and strengthen their intuition in mechanical structure. This is a great tool to build their 3D-spatial skill too.  
2. Purchase a few of the simple machines books and purchase pieces from online store Bricklink . This is a very low cost solution, but they will gain a great deal in mechanical building. Besides, this often helps them to increase their ability in improvising.

If you own a Mindstorms Set:

1. The LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Idea Book: 181 Simple Machines and Clever Contraptions : ISBN-10: 1593276001  
 
2. Winning Design!: LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Design Patterns for Fun and Competition by James Jeffrey Trobaugh - ISBN-13: 978-1484221044 . - Very good book as it explains functionalities for various contraptions. Not just building a complete model like most other books or the online building instructions. 
 
3. The Lego Mindstorms NXT Zoo! - ISBN-13: 978-1593271701

   Good book for youngsters to do practice at home. This allows them to build a model and apply what they have learned in robotics club.  Activities at roboclub tend to be more fun in a group environment. When they are working by themselves, activities need to tailor to individual instead in order to keep them engaged. 

4. Consult many building instructions at http://www.nxtprograms.com - Provide many various models, but just building instructions. How much improvement in building skill will really depend each aptitude in 3D spatial skill without explanation, but just by doing.

Most Gr.8+ will start taking Algorithms in C/C++ at SR. This falls in the Storming Robots' Computer Science Track. CS Track focuses on algorithmic thinking, far beyond just the mechanics in programming. Materials also reach beyond College Level Data Structure to Algorithms. Go here for more details including syllabus.

For most Gr. 4 to 8 who are currently attending in Roboclub Level B to III, they all use either Graphical or Text-based RobotC. You may purchase directly from RobotC website.

•   SR site where you will find building ideas
•   External site where you will find many detailed building instructions
•   Online LEGO Digital Design Tool to design your own lego structure
•   Site students design flowchart design
•   Site consists of many programming learning packet & exercises written by Storming Robots
•   RobotC site - for programming a physical robot
•   RobotC site for programming software virtual robot.

Exercises:

Students at SR will access SR's online RobotC tutorial written specifically for SR's students:  http://learn.stormingrobots.com - locate the  Robotics Projects Track"   RobotC Packet I". Beginning students usually are asked to download and learn from the samples.

If you are seeking some strictly online learning outside SR, CMU Robotics Academy offers some good programs for sale.

In addition, at our robotics club, we heavily stress on the proper design process.  They will need to practice their mechanical design work using www.lucidchart.com. Again, this is a free software, unless you start to create bigger project which requires a pages of design.

Practice Flowchart design (very important)

Practice your design work using www.lucidchart.com will greatly enhance your analysis skill no matter whether you have the programming practices at home or not.   If you  are good at the analysis, programming language will become just a tool for implementation. 

If you are planning to participate in competitions such as RobocupJunior, you should antcipate in more investment will be necessary on hardware devices. But, of course, it depends on each team's progress. SR will always try our best to provide guidance.

Before you invest!!!

Arduino is a platform for electronic projects, not as a robotics platform.  There is NO single pre-packaged Arduino robotic kit per se to allow you to build  large varieties of chassis and contraptions like Mindstorms does.   

If your purpose is to learn about Electronics,  Arduino will be a perfect and  inexpensive platform to start out with.  However, you should not assume using more advanced platform will automatically yield higher performance.

To write about this, it will take many pages of whitepaper to give extensve explanation and comparison.  Here I have included some brief highlights.  

Before you invest on it, it really depends on purpose of your project . 

• Is my goal to learn more about electronic, not in programming skill or A.I. portion of robotics?
• Do I already have a good amount of troubleshooting skills in programming?
• Am I resourceful?
• Do I have the patience and maturity to seek out solutions even when they do not come obvious?
• Do I have the patience and maturity to be carefully responsible for parts.

If you answer "yes" to all these,  going into Arduino is an excellent choice.

Arduino Platform:

Pre-built kit:

NOTE:  I am not recommending to purchase these kits. I have included these as your referernce only in case you wish to purchase pre-built kit.

I found a couple of solderless ones which still allow you to easily add on various electronic devices to gain electronic learning experience with robotics platform:

Arduino based robot kit:

• Pololu Zumo with Arduino kit. (require no soldering)
• DFRobotshop Rover Tracked Robot-basic kit (require very little soldering)
• Arduino Robot Kit.  This was released in 2013. (require no soldering) 

Suggested Basic Items to get:

For absolute Novice to electronic

For others

Some basical tools include mini screw drivers, wire strippers, etc.  We have collected a general list for you here.  You should use your discrection as exactly what brand, and where you wish to purchase. We are NOT representing any brand name of hardware tools.

As far as what we use for our general Robotics with Electronics Roboclub meeting, here is the list.

"Best" book recommended by our Chief Technology Advisor

note: dated back 2014...

The Beginning Arduino book by McRoberts.  You may be able to find a PDF version of the book online. The only "downside" of this book is that sometimes the experiments go on and on. That is ok you can just skip them. The other issue with this book is that it doesn't list all the parts you need. Sometimes you get to a chapter and realize you don't have something (like a servo or a particular resistor).  While this is not meant to completely subsitite formal learning in electronic, it certainly brings a novice to feel much more comfortable level in working with Arduino with a smaller price tag.

Important: While you are working with the experiments, best is to keep asking "What-ifs" and experiment instead of doing exactly what the book prescribes. You will learn a lot more through problems / issues through experimentation, instead of just following exercises prescribed with step-by-step instructions.

However, the only warning is that you must ensure you do not "short" your circuit. Electronic is very unforgiving.