Your first robotics lesson

Learning goal

Identify a robot’s input, decision and output, and explain how these work together.

What you’ll need

• A simple robot or a photograph of one
• Paper, pencils and a clear floor space
• An optional motor-and-sensor kit

The activity

1. Ask students where they have seen a machine respond to its surroundings. Collect ideas and identify inputs and outputs.
2. Invite pairs to give a human “robot” a short set of movement instructions. Compare vague commands with precise commands.
3. Examine a robot or its photograph. Label the sensor, controller and motor, then describe the job of each.
4. Plan a route and write the instructions needed to follow it. Test and revise one instruction at a time.

Pause and reflect

• Which instruction was hardest to follow?
• What information would help a robot stay on the route?
• How could you improve the design?

Take it further

Build a simple line-following robot and compare sensor-based control with a fixed set of instructions.