Assignments
Final: Final Presentation
Post a link to the Final Presentation in a post below. Be sure to (1) have the name of your group at the top, (2) add all your teammates as collaborators, and (3) make sure permissions are set so accessible to all.
Suggestions on Final Presentations:
- TED-talk style presentation
- Total presentation should be 15 minutes
- This includes Q&A w/ panel/audience
- ~10 to 12 minutes + ~3 to 5 minutes discussion
- Presentation should include the video (2 to 3 min)
- So 7 to 10 minutes actual talking/presenting
- "This is what really happened"
- Set the stage: learning goals, developmental domain
- Intended solution
- Describe the product
- Data collection, analysis, findings
- Evidence that it’s working
- Data intensive, pre/post, kid feedback, etc.
- Next steps/improvements (V2(next) look like?)
Final: Final Video
Post a link to the Final Video in a post below. Be sure to (1) have the name of your group at the top, (2) add all your teammates as collaborators, and (3) make sure permissions are set so accessible to all.
Suggestions on Final Videos:
- “Kickstarter” style video
- Kickstarter without the “money ask”
- 2 to 3 minutes
- “Set the stage”: present a problem that needs solving
- Who is the team, and expertise
- What is the solution that you have to solve it
- Design philosophy (what choices you made)
- Competitors? What sets you apart?
- Evidence that it’s working
- Testing that you did
- Happy smiling kids
- Where it’s at/what needs to be done, next steps
Project 8: Assistive Device
Open-ended Design; looking for creativity (in design, use of materials, etc)
Can be useful or “useful” (but HAS to be appropriate)
Can be direct drive (one device, hard-wired) or remote-controlled
Should include inputs and outputs.
Consider “Human Factors” and HRI (Human Robot Interaction)
Document your project to the class website by Wednesday, April 18th at 9pm
- Description, pictures, code + video of the device “in-action”
Final Exam
Upload your solution by Monday, May 7th, 2018.
This is a take-home exam, to be completed individually. You ARE allowed to use external resources (e.g. all the lecture notes, help videos, and submitted projects to the class website, etc), but please complete the questions independent of other students in the class. Please upload all “exam answers” (and supporting documents) to the class website; mark your post “Private” so that only you (and the instructor/TAs) can see the content.
Note that this exam is two pages and worth 20 points total (four questions, five points each).
If you have questions please email the instructor (Ethan) or the TAs (Ipek or Hans/Panos).
Remember to mark your post Private!
Final: Final Testing
On Tuesday, April 10th we did the final testing of the final project solutions with the young children from the Eliot Pearson School.
Robotics Students: please provide some documentation of your final testing and solution below. This does NOT have to be extensive. Please include the following:
- Name of your project (and add your teammates as authors of the post)
- Brief (couple sentence) description of your technical solution
- Pictures (and if you have a video clip of it "in action" then great) of what you developed
- Your code
- And a description of how the testing went, both from a technical point of view and from a project-level point of view.
Project 7: Chain Reaction
Document YOUR group's robot with a post below.
- Include your partner(s) as a co-author
- Write a couple sentences describing the robot, namely how it is "triggered" and what sensor the robot after you was using. And how either of those influenced your design decisions.
- Include picture(s) documenting your solution
- Optional you can include a video of your particular sub-system working
Video of Final Chain Reaction:
Include your documentation below.
Final: Prototype Testing
On Tuesday, March 27th we did testing of the prototype solutions with the young children from the Eliot Pearson School.
Robotics Students: please provide some documentation of your prototype solution below. This does NOT have to be extensive. Please include the following:
- Name of your project (and add your teammates as authors of the post)
- Brief (couple sentence) description of your current technical solution
- Pictures (and if you have a video clip of it "in action" then great) of what you developed
- Your code
- And brief (couple sentence) description of major updates/changes you'll be making for the final version (to be tested Tuesday, April 10th)
Project 6: Intro to GoPiGo
Documentation (description, images, video, code, etc) due to website by Wed (3/7) at 9pm.
Click here for the full project description.
** Be sure to follow THIS HELP TUTORIAL on updating the GoPiGo software to make the web IDE accessible.
Final: Project Proposals
Final Project Proposal Presentation given in-class on Tuesday (2/27)
Final Project Proposal Documentation due to website by Wed (2/28) at 9pm
Click here for the full Project Proposal assignment description.
Project 5: Robotic Arm (Part 2)
Documentation (description, images, video, code, etc) due to website by Wed (2/21) at 9pm.
UPDATE: students negotiated 24-hour extension. Documentation due to website by Friday (2/23) at 9pm.
Click here for the full PDF of the project description.
Note that Project 5 is a build-on of Project 4: Robotic Arm (Part 1).
View the following Help Tutorial for calculations/tips and tricks: Inverse Kinematics.
Project 4: Robotic Arm (Part 1)
Documentation (description, images, video, code, etc) due to website by Wed (2/14) at 9pm.
Click here for the project description.
Be sure also to see relevant notes under the February 8th, 2018 lecture.
And here is another writeup of the calculations (from last year, although we were using LabVIEW instead of Python); image credit: Ipek.

Project 3: Trailer Control
Click here for the full project description.
Documentation (description, images, video, code, etc) due to website by Wed (2/7) at 9pm
Blackboard pictures from class:


Using the Gyro: be sure to check out this help for reading and resetting the gyro sensor.
Project 2: Walker
Here is the full project description.
Documentation (description, images, video, code, etc) due to website by Wed (1/31) at 9pm.
Here is some initial research (YouTube video searches) of LEGO-based walkers to get you started.
Note: Part of the requirement of this project (read the description) is to vary the speed to see the effect on the behavior/motion (forward and backward, and slow to fast). For research in this area, check out this article.
Here is the YouTube video linked in the article:
Project 1: Find the Wall
Click here for the full project description.
Documentation (description, images, video, code, etc) due to website by Wed (1/24) at 9pm.
Project Description: This project explores using an ultrasonic sensor to detect an object, and two simple types of control algorithms: a bang-bang controller and a simple proportional controller. You are to create a LEGO MINDSTORMS car robot that, using an ultrasonic sensor, approaches and detects a specific distance away from an object (e.g. 20cm).
Project 0: Introduce Yourself
Welcome to ME-84. Please use the space below to introduce yourself.
- Name
- Picture (you, or something that represents you)
- Year, Major
- Brief bio (including interests)
- Insert cool YouTube video of a LEGO robot
CD-114 Students: feel free to introduce yourselves as well!