ROBOTC for VEX On-Site Professional Development

Lab Procedures Logging onto CS2N.org – Log in with your user name and password VEX Robots/chargers – Make sure during breaks, lunches and end of day to charge your robot Saving your programs – Save them in an easily accessible location (My Documents) – Don’t save them in ROBOTC directory

ROBOTC Overview & Features

ROBOTC this Week There may be several versions of ROBOTC on your desktops This class we will primarily use ‘ROBOTC for VEX Cortex and PIC’ and ‘RVW Cortex and PIC’

Background Information ROBOTC is developed specifically with teachers, classrooms, and competitions in mind Complete programming solution for the VEX PIC, VEX Cortex, and several other popular robot platforms (VEX IQ coming soon!) Only programming language for the VEX PIC and VEX Cortex with a real-time debugger – You’ll learn more about this feature later on Very similar to industry-standard C programming – Students get real-world programming experience

Industry Standard Coding Students that learn ROBOTC Programming are also learning key components of Industry Standard Programming Languages...

Industry Standard IDE Students programming in the ROBOTC IDE are also learning how to use features in Industry Standard IDE’s...

Visual Studio IDE and Code

ROBOTC IDE and Code

Platform Type Allows you to toggle ROBOTC’s programming mode between the VEX PIC and VEX Cortex, will enable features and commands for the system

Function Library Lists commands that can be drag-and-dropped into the program. List of available functions will expand or shrink depending on the “Menu Level”

Menu Level Customizes the ROBOTC interface and Function Library based on the users experience level

Sample Programs ROBOTC includes over 260 Sample Programs Code is fully explained Over 40 are Natural Language specific

Comments Comments are used to make notes in code for the human programmers Every sample program contains comments pertaining to robot configuration, ROBOTC commands, robot behavior, etc // Single line comment – everything after “//” is ignored by the ROBOTC compiler /* Multi-line comment*/ - everything between the “/*” and “*/” symbols is ignored by the ROBOTC compiler

ROBOTC Start Page Displays the latest ROBOTC news, version of ROBOTC, and ROBOTC Resources

ROBOTC Help In-depth explanations about the ROBOTC interface, commands, debugger, etc.

Getting Started Documentation Simplified Getting Started and Troubleshooting steps built into ROBOTC

Motors and Sensor Setup One central place to configure and name all of the motors and sensors attached to your Cortex

Teaching ROBOTC for IFI VEX Robots

Discussion What is a robot? What can you teach with a robot?

Teaching ROBOTC for IFI VEX Robots 40 tutorial videos 275 pages of printable guides aligned to the videos 50 pages of supplementary “helper guides” 35 programming challenges Freely available at

Pedagogy Abstraction Bridges – Brings familiarity to unfamiliar concepts – Eases transition into more complex topics STEM Values – The ‘M’ in STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering (and Robotics!) are based in Math Self-Paced learning

Preconceptions & Pedagogy (& Andragogy) Preconceptions – You have preconceptions Students have preconceptions – New information has to be reconciled with existing beliefs – Something has to give! – Contradictory statements can coexist in the mind …this is called CONFUSION We want to get rid of this. Effective instruction requires teachers to address preconceptions effectively

Preconceptions Do we expect you to believe this yet? – NO! – You can’t change preconceptions by simply making claims and justifications – Preconceptions are too closely linked to the rest of our world view – 2 ways to change belief: Repeated experience Trauma We prefer this one, but hey…

Teaching with Robotics Often, you will encounter a problem

Teaching with Robotics Solve the problem

Teaching with Robotics Problem solved…

Teaching with Robotics Problem not solved??

Teaching with Robotics

The Problem The Real Problem The Really Real Problem

The Robotics Teacher Build an understanding that leads to a solution Understand the underlying problem and solution Make it work Instruction vs. Unstruction –What happens if you just solve the problem for the student? Remove the tip of the iceberg Don’t actually solve the problem At a loss to explain why the same problem re-emerges soon after –Result: Confuses students Teaches dependence as a solution

The Robotics Teacher Level 1: Answer Level – “Explode” the iceberg (tip) – Short term solutions – Shallow understandings – “Solving the problem” often doesn’t solve the problem! – Be aware of, but do NOT stop or let your students stop here Understand the underlying problem and solution Make it work

The Robotics Teacher Level 2: Student Level – Realize the underlying nature and scope of the problem (whole iceberg) – Find a way to solve the real problem – Students need to achieve this level of understanding Understand the underlying problem and solution Make it work

The Robotics Teacher Level 3: Teacher Level – “Remove” the water – Expose the problem – Build an understanding – Lead the student toward a working solution to the “whole” problem – You must reach this level Build an understanding that leads to a solution Understand the underlying problem and solution Make it work

The Robotics Teacher Build an understanding that leads to a solution Understand the underlying problem and solution Make it work Instruction vs. Unstruction –Teachers must operate fluently at the highest level This includes understanding a student’s level and perspective –You must: Be aware of and eschew Level 1 understandings Construct a Level 2 understanding Expand into a Level 3 understanding

Preconceptions Do we expect you to believe this yet? – Have you had repeated experience or trauma yet? If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime!

Student-Paced Instruction Everyone learns different things at different paces Everyone MUST move at a different pace – Going too fast results in failure and frustration – Going too slow results in loss of attention (i.e. future failure) TRC4V can be used as a teaching aid – One instructor can’t teach at 20 different paces simultaneously – One instructor plus 20 computers can

ROBOTC “Natural Language”

ROBOTC Natural Language Goal is to lower the barrier of entry into syntax-based programming by simplifying the code and using more “natural” command names Lines of code for common robot behaviors are consolidated into single commands – forward(); – lineTrackforTime(); – stop(); – untilBump();

ROBOTC Natural Language To use the Natural Language commands it must be selected as the Robot > Platform Type in ROBOTC

ROBOT Motion Commands that cause the entire robot to perform a behavior

Setup Allows you to specify what type of robot configuration you have from pre-specified models (RECBOT, Swervebot)

Movement Commands that allow you to control individual motors / servos

Special Commands that control the more unique VEX Hardware – LED’s and Flashlights

Until Commands that allow you to create behaviors where the robot acts “until” a certain event – Button Press – Encoder Count Reached

Wait Commands that wait for an elapsed amount of time in seconds or milliseconds

Sample Programs

Moving Forward and Backward