Robotics capstone: your own machine lesson plan
Pick a mobile robot or an arm and build it through seven milestones: a brief, sensors, closed-loop motion, control, safety, testing, and a demo and write-up for your portfolio.
Objectives and materials
By the end, students can
- Choose the machine, write its brief, and pick and place its sensors.
- Closed-loop motion you can measure, and who drives: code or an operator.
- Make it safe by design, test it like a technician, then demo and write it up.
Materials for the whole unit
- Arcade button x 2
- Arduino Uno R3
- Buzzer
- Character LCD with I2C backpack
- ESP32 DevKit V1 x 2
- Full-size breadboard
- Half breadboard
- Hobby servo
- IR distance sensor, Sharp GP2Y0A21 x 3
- IR proximity switch, E18-D80NK x 2
- LED
- Limit switch, lever microswitch x 2
- Line sensor, TCRT5000
- Motor driver, DRV8833
- Motor driver, L9110S
- Potentiometer x 4
- Pushbutton x 2
- Resistor
- Robot arm, 4 servos
- Robot car chassis, 2WD
- Slide switch
- Thumb stick x 2
- Traffic light module
Every part is already on the simulator’s bench, so there is nothing to buy or hand out. The counts are the most any one lesson uses, if you build it on real breadboards too.
Plan and sense
Choose the machine, write its brief, and pick and place its sensors.
| Lesson | Time | What students do |
|---|---|---|
| Milestone 1: pick a machineChoose what you will build, a mobile robot or an arm, and write a one page brief for it. A robot vacuum shows what a brief has to pin down: what it does, what it senses and which behavior wins. | 55 min |
|
| Milestone 2: mechanics and sensorsA maze solver on three Sharp distance sensors: read the sensor curve, find its blind spot, place the sensors around the chassis, and predict the path the robot logs before you run it. | 65 min |
|
Materials
- Arduino Uno R3
- IR distance sensor, Sharp GP2Y0A21 x 3
- Limit switch, lever microswitch x 2
- Line sensor, TCRT5000
- Motor driver, DRV8833
- Robot car chassis, 2WD
Check for understanding
Each student finishes "Milestone 2: mechanics and sensors" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 7 of its 7 steps as they go.
Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "Quiz: predict the path".
Move and control
Closed-loop motion you can measure, and who drives: code or an operator.
| Lesson | Time | What students do |
|---|---|---|
| Milestone 3: motion controlClose the loop. A 2WD chassis counts wheel pulses, holds a speed with an integral controller on each wheel, keeps it when the battery sags, and drives an exact square by counting instead of timing. | 55 min |
|
| Milestone 4: autonomy or an operatorDecide who drives: code or a person. A four-servo arm on two joysticks shows the operator side, with rate control, a dead band, joint limits that code enforces, and a reading you predict before you push. | 65 min |
|
Materials
- Arduino Uno R3
- Motor driver, L9110S
- Robot arm, 4 servos
- Robot car chassis, 2WD
- Thumb stick x 2
Check for understanding
Each student finishes "Milestone 4: autonomy or an operator" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 7 of its 7 steps as they go.
Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "Quiz: predict the stop".
Prove it
Make it safe by design, test it like a technician, then demo and write it up.
| Lesson | Time | What students do |
|---|---|---|
| Milestone 5: safetyA press guarded by a two-beam light curtain and an e-stop: interlocks checked before and during every move, a fault that latches until a person clears it, a fail-safe stop, and an honest line between a lesson and a safety device. | 65 min |
|
| Milestone 6: testingTest your machine’s remote like a technician: a written plan, the happy path, the output checked instead of the log, a soak test, a fault injected on purpose, and a real bug found and written up. | 65 min |
|
| Milestone 7: demo and write-upTeach the record and playback arm a routine of your own, prove it survives a reset, predict its reading, then record your demo and write it up for your portfolio, with an honest look at the robotics technician path. | 65 min |
|
Materials
- Arcade button x 2
- Arduino Uno R3
- Buzzer
- Character LCD with I2C backpack
- ESP32 DevKit V1 x 2
- Full-size breadboard
- Half breadboard
- Hobby servo
- IR proximity switch, E18-D80NK x 2
- LED
- Potentiometer x 4
- Pushbutton x 2
- Resistor
- Robot arm, 4 servos
- Slide switch
- Traffic light module
Check for understanding
Each student finishes "Milestone 7: demo and write-up" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 7 of its 7 steps as they go.
Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "Write it up, and what comes next".
Teach this unit as a class
Start a class from this course and its 7 lessons are assigned in one go, in order. Students join with a six-character code or printed login cards, and each one’s work comes back to you.
The class tools are free for 30 days for one class of up to 20 students, with no card. The lessons themselves are free either way.