Oak Park Introduces a New Robotics Program

Oak Park Introduces a New Robotics Program

The days of using LEGOs for instruction of advanced robotics students may be

numbered in middle and high schools! Oak Park Middle School is leading the way

with a new advanced robotics effort for the 6

th-8th grade Talented and  Gifted (TAG) program. All of it was made possible through a recent collaboration

between Dr. Robin Gillespie of Oak Park and Dr. John D. Williams, a Decatur resident

and Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UAHuntsville. Dr.

Williams volunteered time, money, and graduate students to develop and teach a

series of custom lesson plans that introduce microcontroller driven robots using a C

based programming language and student assembled electronic circuits. The

concepts applied at Oak Park are very similar to college level projects but do not

include high temperature soldering of electronic circuit boards. Instead, students

are learning to build circuits on breadboards that they can modify over time as their

robot becomes more and more complex.

Over an eight-week period, students explored general concepts in robotics such as

the physics of a DC motor and how solar energy can be harnessed to power

electronics. They were then introduced to an Arduino electronic controller package

that is used to program and control an ATMEGA328 microcontroller. The class of

21 was then tasked to write programs that control light emitting diodes (LEDs),

light dependent resistors (LDRs), DC motors, servos, and various sensor and

actuator mechanisms that can all be controlled by their Arduino electronics board.

In conjunction with the programming effort, students worked in teams of three to

build their own robots using kits designed and purchased for Oak Park. Each

student demonstrated a basic understanding of the assembly and programing of DC

motor driven robots with active sensing and control mechanisms.

This is just the beginning of the partnership between UAH and the Oak Park TAG

program. In the spring, Dr. Williams will return to continue the robotics effort and

the mentoring of a Destination Imagination team involved with exploration of

propulsion systems. He will also assist Dr. Gillespie, Ms. Winton, and Ms. Millwood

with the expansion of the annual Oak Park Raft Race into the eighth-grade honors

science classes.

Drs. Williams and Gillespie would like to thank Nucor and local vendors, including

Home Depot, Hobby Lobby, and Metal Fastener Supply Company, for their help in

making this project possible.