Area 08
Robotics
Machines that sense, decide and move
Robotics brings everything together. A robot needs a body (structure), movement (mechanics and kinematics), power (circuits), a brain (logic and programming) and senses (sensors).
What you will learn
- How robots use sensors to understand their surroundings
- How motors and wheels turn commands into movement
- How to plan a robot’s behaviour step by step
- How to test, debug and improve a robot
Example experiments
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Program a robot to follow a line.
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Make a robot stop before it hits a wall.
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Find the best wheel size for speed and control.
Things you can build
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A line-following robot
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A robot that avoids obstacles
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A simple robotic arm
These examples show the kind of work in this area. The published lessons may differ.
What the simulation simplifies
- The virtual world is simpler than a real room: floors are flat and the light is even.
- Real robots also struggle with battery life, wheel slip and broken parts.
Every simulation simplifies reality. Knowing how it does so is part of learning engineering.
Links to school subjects
Computer science, physics, mathematics, design
Connections to other areas
Robotics uses all the other areas, so it is a great place to combine what you have learned.
Good to know
Robots work in factories, hospitals and on farms, and robotic rovers have explored the surface of Mars.