In the News

British Columbia’s 2016 curriculum: Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies

2016-04-12 Dan

Fellow VHS member Daniel C shared with us British Columbia’s 2016 curriculum draft, “Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies”.  To quote the website,

Electronics and Robotics

  • uses of electronics and robotics
  • components of an electric circuit
  • ways in which various electrical components affect the path of electricity
  • Ohm’s Law
  • platforms for PCB (Printed Circuit Board) production
  • basic robot behaviours using input/output devices, movement- and sensor-based responses, and microcontrollers
  • mechanical devices for the transfer of mechanical energy
  • mechanical advantage and power efficiency, including friction, force, and torque
  • robotics coding
  • various platforms for robotics programming

Get all the info or Read what’s new.

No one is better prepared to help teach these subjects in British Columbia than Marginally Clever Robots.  Would you like to know more?

News

Win $100,000 for your school or university … with a Makelangelo?

2016-03-15 Dan

http://robotart.org/ is a contest to give away $100,000 to the student team that makes art with a robot.

It’s crazy easy to make some quick cash. Andrew Conru says “The first five US-based teams that upload 6 unique artwork will receive a $2,500 donation to their school!”

The only other way to pull 2.5 gees that fast is in a jet, so unless your robot is a skywriting quadcopter (hmmm…), get our your robot and get in on this yesterday. If only you had a Makelangelo right now!

Registration must be by April 1st, 2016, so hurry!

Thanks to our facebook friends for the hot tip.

News

Jigsolve: Next up…

2016-03-01 Dan

Next up I have to rotate the center of the gantry so that the bars are one above the other. Two reasons:

1. They will keep the pulleys at either end from bending inwards, which loosens the belt and causes movement problems.

2. When the end effector in the center is vertical, it will be much easier to make a system for lifting the nozzle. My first two lifting systems were not good enough, so this change doesn’t create new work for me.

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