Source: https://mokxi.com/teachers/plans/robotics-capstone Updated: 2026-11-12 Lesson plan # 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. 3 chapters, 7 lessons, about 7 hours, no board. Every lesson runs in the browser, with nothing to install. Start a class from this course The unit ## 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. Chapter 1. About 2 h ## Plan and sense Choose the machine, write its brief, and pick and place its sensors. Lesson | Time | What students do Milestone 1: pick a machine Choose 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 - The brief - Write down what it does - Put a number on the motion - Which behavior wins - The top of the ladder - Your brief, one page Milestone 2: mechanics and sensors A 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 - Run it - Centered by feedback - Read the curve - The blind spot - The wheel is part of the sensor - Your sensor plan - Quiz: predict the path ### 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". Chapter 2. About 2 h ## Move and control Closed-loop motion you can measure, and who drives: code or an operator. Lesson | Time | What students do Milestone 3: motion control Close 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 - Run it - The loop reports - On target - A tired battery - Count, do not time - Your motion rubric Milestone 4: autonomy or an operator Decide 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 - Run it - Rate, not position - Limits the code enforces - Open the claw - Close it on the part - Your control page - Quiz: predict the stop ### 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". Chapter 3. About 3 h 15 min ## 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: safety A 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 - Run it - One clean stroke - Refuse - Stop - Latch - Fail safe - Your safety page, honestly Milestone 6: testing Test 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 - The unit under test - Test 1: the happy path - Test 2: check the output, not the log - Test 3: back off again - Test 4: soak it - Test 5: inject a fault - Write up the bug Milestone 7: demo and write-up Teach 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 - Run it - Test the empty case first - Teach pose 1 - Teach pose 2 and play it - Quiz: predict the playback - Record the demo - Write it up, and what comes next ### 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". Your class ## 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. Start a class from this course See the demo class More units ## Other lesson plans Electronics basics 20 lessons, about 10 h. Embedded on the Arduino Uno 16 lessons, about 12 h. Embedded on the ESP32-C3 13 lessons, about 11 h. Embedded on the Raspberry Pi Pico 7 lessons, about 6 h. Build your own fight stick 5 lessons, about 4 h. Embedded on the STM32F411 6 lessons, about 6 h. C++ on a board 13 lessons, about 10 h. Digital logic and memory 4 lessons, about 4 h. Interactive devices on the Uno 9 lessons, about 8 h. From gates to a computer 23 lessons, about 16 h. Build a claw machine 8 lessons, about 6 h. Every unit All the courses as ready-made units, on the teachers page.