I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords

Posted By on January 8, 2017

My big Christmas present this year was a progammable, customizable robot from Makeblock called mBot. It’s a really cool, fully functional robot that can be programmed with Scratch, the visual computer programming application Sam and I have been using. I thought this would be a great way to bolster Sam’s interest in electronics and robotics while at the same time having a blast working on projects together. We started work on it virtually the day after Christmas, and haven’t stopped since.

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One of mBot’s abilities is to follow a line. We started out by using the “track” that came with the robot (until Penny put a stop to our fun).

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We tried the built in line follower again with our own line made with electrical tape and it worked really well. Of course, we had to hack it to add a cat toy to the back! At least it made it a fun spectator sport for Zach.

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Here is mBot delivering a payload of precious popcorn to Sam which she found hilarious. If only it could do laundry too. . .

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Of course, we had to install some upgrades. Now mBot has a servo to make his hand wave and some more LEDs to act as a roving flashlight. Now it just needs a gripper so it can get the multitude of cat toys out from under the couch…

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One Response to “I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords”

  1. Debbi Plemn says:

    I have no idea what this is. Too advanced for me. But glad you and Sam are enjoying it.

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