Rapid Exposure to BEST Using Pitsco’s Tetrix E. T. Hammerand, Ph.D. Crowley’s Ridge BEST Robotics July 22, 2011

Teachers and BEST A major obstacles in the recruitment of teams for BEST competition is making teachers comfortable with the technology involved. The consumable materials involved in the six-week timeframe are major hindrances in this. Substituting Pitsco’s Tetrix equipment (http://tetrixrobotics.com) for the BEST consumable kit lets teachers create and program their own robot in the space of a single day.

Teacher Workshop

Students and BEST Pitsco’s Tetrix equipment can be used with students as well as teachers. Students unfamiliar with BEST can become quite familiar in a relatively short period of time. Students already familiar with BEST can explore new possibilities. A week-long summer camp is ideally suited to this.

Student Summer Camp

Tetrix Equipment chassis elements gears wheels axles servo pivots arm elements motor mounts screws, nuts, etc.

Programming Tutorial Begin with simple program (e.g., “Hello, world!”) Add arcade control of wheel motors Add reading of digital input Add conditional action based on digital input Add servo control Connect bumper switches (“Roomba”-style autonomous behavior)

Teachers Programming

Extending BEST’s Impact Teachers can also be introduced to the use of sensors non-standard for BEST. White/black detection (line following) Distance sensor (obstacle detection) Audio sensor (hearing) Encourage teachers to encourage students to parlay BEST experience into a science fair project.

Sensor Example

Questions? E. T. Hammerand, Ph.D. Crowley’s Ridge BEST best.cs.astate.edu Arkansas State University Computer Science best.astate@gmail.com (870) 680.8109