Session 2: Jul 24- Aug 8, 2023

This studio is for girls and non-binary young people enthusiastic about building bots. Robots are everywhere. From giant robotic arms that help assemble cars to humanoids that resemble us to fierce battlebots that combat each other. 

Enter: nimble bots. They are quick and light when they move - like the orchestrator's deft, swift fingertip motion. They can walk around, transport materials, swim, fold, and even dissolve and disappear.

In this Studio, we will seek inspiration from the world of micro & nanorobotics and identity the use and demand for small, nimble robots. These robots will be designed to take advantage of their unique material properties and targeted scale to perform novel and customized tasks. Whether it's the "crumb seeker" that crawls through tight crevices to scavenge for leftover cookie crumbs or the "origami bot" that folds itself to swim through the sewage pipes and repair drainage- their tasks are unlimited. Students will learn to integrate external sensors and actuators to design and fabricate their own personal robot. Together we’ll imagine various deployment scenarios for the next generation of robots that are small for a very good reason. 

Register 

Focus Skills/Subjects/Technologies:

   Design

   Engineering

   Programming

   Electronics

   Robotics (Arduino, Sensors, Actuators)

   Rapid Prototyping

Prerequisites:

• Enrolling students must be between the ages of 11 to 13 (or grades 6-8)

Automated doors have allowed buildings to be significantly more accessible, giving people with physical impairments the ability to navigate more independently, and generally being convenient for everyone. However, while current door automating systems offer great accessibility, the systems themselves are not very accessible to the general public. They typically cost hundreds, even thousands of dollars, have extremely involved installation, and are huge, intrusive devices. Doorbot solves these problems with a low profile, easy to use, and affordable design. Doorbot uses two motors to open a door, one that pulls the doors handle down with a string, and one with a wheel on the ground to roll the door open. To install Doorbot, the user simply slides the device beneath the door and uses the ratcheting mechanism to push up and grip the door, while pushing the wheel against the ground for improved traction. Then, after attaching the string on the device to the door handle with its strapping mechanism, the user can simply actuate the remote control to open that door. Since the design only requires two motors, a receiver, and remote, it can be made for under a hundred dollars.