mBot for Makers: Conceive, Construct, and Code Your Own Robots at Home or in the Classroom

312 Pages·2017·26.858 MB·English

by  Andrew Carle, Rick Schertle

Science/Robotics
Build, Program, and Customize
Your Own Robots!
m Bot
The mBot is an educational Arduino robot that helps kids learn
programming and electronics, alone or in the classroom. The m
mBot allows novices to start by tinkering, and to access higher-
level features or add new components when inspiration strikes, B
without soldering or breadboarding! This flexibility allows
for Makers
o
raw beginners and experienced Makers to work at their own
comfort level. t
Written by educators, this book cuts through much of the
f
confusion resulting from the mBot documentation. It also saves you
o
time when you’re scaling up your mBots for home and classroom
r
use by giving you creative project ideas you can use right away.

M
With this book, you’ll learn to:
a
● Customize your mBot kit ● Integrate your mBot with
with covers and 3D-printed LEGO Technic. (The book’s k
parts. website includes 3D-printing
e
● Add sensors, and program and laser-cutting files!)
r
with SCRATCH, to do practical ● Design elementary data-
s
and whimsical projects. collection feeds, mixed-media
● Create drag-and-drop animatronics, and displays
that react to the environment
graphical programming using
around you.
a computer or tablet.
There are a quarter of a million mBots out there, ready to push
creative kids beyond the preprogrammed car. This book will ignite
Conceive, Construct, and
your mBot imagination and help you start thinking about the
S
possibilities! C Code Your Own Robots at
H
E
R
T Home or in the Classroom
US $29.99 CAN $39.99 L
E
ISBN: 978-1-680-45296-9 •
C
A
R RICK SCHERTLE • ANDREW CARLE
L
makezine.com E

mBot for Makers
CONCEIVE, CONSTRUCT, AND
CODE YOUR OWN ROBOTS AT
HOME OR IN THE CLASSROOM
Rick Schertle
Andrew Carle
Maker Media, Inc.
San Francisco
Copyright © 2017 Rick Schertle and Andrew Carle. All rights reserved.
Printed in Canada.
Published by
Maker Media, Inc.
1700 Montgomery Street, Suite 240
San Francisco, CA 94111
Maker Media books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promo-
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For more information, contact our corporate/institutional sales department: 800-
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Publisher: Roger Stewart
Editor: Patrick DiJusto
Copy Editor: Elizabeth Campbell, Happenstance Type-O-Rama
Proofreader: Elizabeth Welch, Happenstance Type-O-Rama
Interior Designer and Compositor: Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama
Cover Designer: Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama
Indexer: Valerie Perry, Happenstance Type-O-Rama
December 2017: First Edition
Revision History for the First Edition
2017-12-9 First Release
See oreilly.com/catalog/errata.csp?isbn=9781680452969 for release details.
Make:, Maker Shed, and Maker Faire are registered trademarks of Maker Media,
Inc. The Maker Media logo is a trademark of Maker Media, Inc. mBot for Makers
and related trade dress are trademarks of Maker Media, Inc. Many of the designa-
tions used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed
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Inc. was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps
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ensure that the information and instructions contained in this work are accurate,
the publisher and the author disclaim all responsibility for errors or omissions,
including without limitation responsibility for damages resulting from the use of
or reliance on this work. Use of the information and instructions contained in
this work is at your own risk. If any code samples or other technology this work
contains or describes is subject to open source licenses or the intellectual property
rights of others, it is your responsibility to ensure that your use thereof complies
with such licenses and/or rights.
978-1-168-045296-9
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Contents
Acknowledgments vii
About the Authors viii
Introduction ix
1 Kit to Classroom 1
Out-of-the-Box Kit 1
Installing the Motors and Wheels on the Chassis 3
Installing the Sensor 12
Adding the Battery Holder 15
Installing the mCore and Battery 16
Wiring the mBot 19
Communicating with Your mBot 20
Test the mCore for Correct Connections 23
Test Your mBot Remote 23
What to Do with Your mBox Right out of the Box 25
Projects 26
To Classroom 28
Onboard Components 28
Powering Up Your mBot 31
Tour of the mCore and Onboard Sensors 34
Storing Components 37
Storing Projects 37
Protecting the mCore 42
Using a LEGO Technic Frame 43
Adding a Cover 51
Making Cables 53
Updating the mBot 58
Where We’re Heading from Here 61
v
2 mBot Software Sensors 63
Default Program Options 63
Makeblock App 64
Tour of the Project Gallery 65
Navigating Blocks on a Mobile Device 68
Balloon Tag 72
mBlock 75
Connecting to mBlock 77
Traffic Light Classroom Volume Meter 85
Working with Sensors in mBlock 93
Sensor Recipes 95
Traffic Light Classroom Volume Meter, Revisited 103
Upload to Arduino 106
Independent Traffic Light Classroom Volume Meter 108
Reinstall the Default Program 113
Where We’re Heading from Here 114
3 Animatronics 119
Puppet Movement without Sensors 121
Puppet Movement with Sensors 144
4 Measurement Devices 169
Monitoring Sensors in mBlock 182
Door Monitor 194
5 Robot Navigation 203
Robot Navigation Using Keyboard Commands 203
Robotic Game Challenges 204
6 Building Big and Small with mCore 245
Harnessing DC Power 245
Building Small 251
Building Big 274
Index 289
vi GETTING STARTED WITH MBOTS
Acknowledgments
Love and gratitude to my daughter, Annika, for making my life a
whirlwind of discovery and creativity, and to my awesome part-
ner, Jodi Kittle, for helping me find focus and balance in the midst
of that chaos. Thanks to Shelly Willie, who invited me to Chadwick
International, which in turn offered the incredible pleasure of daily
collaboration with Gary Donahue, whose innovative spirit shines
through in every mBot project. Sylvia Martinez’s and Gary Stager’s
Constructing Modern Knowledge Press not only connected me to
the powerful history of children and computers, but also the incred-
ible cohort of Maker-educators whom I’m lucky enough to call col-
leagues and friends, including Josh Burker, Jaymes Dec, Angi Chau,
Karen Blumberg, and Brian C. Smith.
Andrew
As in all my life, my wife, Angie, and kids, Kelly and Micah,
provide constant fun, encouragement, and inspiration. I love
you guys so much! I’m thankful to my dad, Bill, for allowing me
to work alongside him as a kid and learn along the way. I so much
appreciate my staff team and the awesome students and parents at
Steindorf K–8 STEAM School in San Jose, California, where I teach.
Starting a new public school has been a wild ride, especially while
writing a book! Thanks to Andrew for his willingness to share his
expertise and endure endless questions with a chill attitude. As a
lifelong Maker, I have been given so many opportunities by Maker
Media over the past ten years to do what I love doing—Making and
teaching. Thanks!
Rick
vii
About the Authors
RICK SCHERTLE has taught middle school for over 20 years, and
now runs the Maker Lab at Steindorf K–8 STEAM School in San
Jose, California. Rick has been involved in Maker Faire for many
years. He has written nearly two dozen articles for Make: Magazine,
including his first article in volume 15 in 2008 on compressed air
rockets. He also wrote the book Planes, Gliders, and Paper Rockets from
Maker Media. Rick is the cofounder of AirRocketWorks.com.
ANDREW CARLE has taught in K–12 schools for 15 years. He
launched the Makers program in 2010 while teaching programming
and math at Flint Hill School in Northern Virginia. In 2014, he
moved to Korea to expand Chadwick International’s school-wide
Making & Design program. He has presented at Maker Faires and
has with MakerEd.org, National Association of Independent Schools
(NAIS), Virginia Society for Technology in Education (VSTE), and
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), and has
been named a Senior FabLearn Fellow for Stanford’s Transformative
Learning Technologies Lab.
viii