Learn to Program Self-Driving Cars (and Help Duckies Commute) With Lego EV# Robotics

ROVER RACES:

Autonomous Driving 140 million miles away

INTRODUCTION

Teachers may use what robots they have on-hand at their site.This lesson will be using Lego EV3 robots only because that is what we have multiple setups for. This lesson can be applied to many kinds of smart robots.

This lesson is divided into two phases, the first phase students will program their rovers to follow step-by-step instructions to avoid obstacles and retrieve minerals. In the second phase, students will program sensors attached to rover programmed to avoid obstacles, and retrieve minerals. Students will be divided into groups of six and tasked with programing their rover to navigate a course without crashing on mars. This task requires a basic understanding of the challenges involved in ev3 programming and the importance of engineering a rover that can drive a distance on Mars.

LESSON OVERVIEW

Subject & Grade Level: Science, 8th Grade

Length: 5 50-minute class periods

Objectives

At the conclusion of this lesson students will be able to:

Describe the challenges of remotely moving/operating a rover on the surface of Mars. Apply the engineering design cycle to produce a rover that achieves the mission goals within the defined mission constraints.

Design an Autonomous rover that can navigate a course and retrieve minerals on its own.

Key Questions

• How much is the success of engineering contingent upon the communications and operations design?
How can various proposed design solutions be compared and improved?

What information will the rover need to complete its mission?

Standards NGSS MS-ETS1-3: Analyze data from tests to determine similarities and differences among several design solutions to identify the best characteristics of each that can be combined into a new solution to better meet the criteria for success Common Core MP.2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively.