childrens activitiy robot

[wilr87]

Hi Guys and Girls,

First time post for me here. I am a little cluelesss to how i can solve a problem. I have been asked to develop a childrens activity to take in to a school!!

I have been asked to develop an activity for children that can demonstrate how submarines navigate around the ocean using sonar. To make this a little more interesting for the children we have decided to say that they are controlling a submarine aroind a mine field.

This has to be a land base activity due to nor being able to able to use water. So I have imagined that device would be driven around on a 1m x 2m board enclosed in a box so that the children cant see what they are doing like in a submarine.

On the floor of the box I was thinking of having LEDS in various locations that would act as the mines! So that the children know that they are getting close to a mine (LED), I want a black line around it (different shapes)

When driving the bot/device in the box - I need it to be controlled by Infrared or Joystick controller
                             - when the bot touches a line it sets off a beep and keeps
                                                            beeping until the children drive it off the line
           - A sensor that detects light, if the children keep driving over          
                                               the line and come in contact with a mine an explosion sound happens.

Is this possible or am I totally over complicating the task? And is it possible to build a robot to do this?

Many thanks in advance. (sorry if this makes NO sense at all)

Will

[cooldog]

it can be really complicated for your first robot. but if you break it down not as much

This has to be a land base activity due to nor being able to able to use water. So I have imagined that device would be driven around on a 1m x 2m board enclosed in a box so that the children cant see what they are doing like in a submarine.

this could be a simple cardboard or ply wood box

On the floor of the box I was thinking of having LEDS in various locations that would act as the mines! So that the children know that they are getting close to a mine (LED), I want a black line around it (different shapes)

When driving the bot/device in the box - I need it to be controlled by Infrared or Joystick controller
                             - when the bot touches a line it sets off a beep and keeps
                                                            beeping until the children drive it off the line
           - A sensor that detects light, if the children keep driving over          
                                               the line and come in contact with a mine an explosion sound happens.

for this you could use a slow moving RC car or other device.

the electronics can we held all in the "maze" or w/e u want to call it.

depending on the size and weight of the robot that they are driving you could have it activate a switch or pad when it comes to close to the led. then send the signal to a micro controller to activate the beeping noise. the write a program so that if the button gets activate "X" times in "X" minutes it makes the explosion sound.

[SmAsH]

this could be a simple cardboard or ply wood base with plexy glass walls and top

Wouldn't this make it see through?

[cooldog]

wups i read the message wrong well then a plywood box or cardboard would do great

[wilr87]

Hi,

Thanks for a quick reply!! I did not think about having the electronics in the maze, it would possibly make more sense.

I would make the maze on a sheet of ply then construct a box over it!! So the kids could not see what they were doing, so need to rely on sound!

If i used some type of switch around the mine (LED) would it be possible to have 30 of these in to one micro controller that when activated cause the beeping to start and stop of the switch is deactivated? 

I have just thought that i could use light sensors in the maze going in to the micro controller and have an LED on the under side of the vechiel, the if it gets activated the explosion goes off... Or would i not need a micro controller for this just a simple circuit?

[cooldog]

just use a simple photovore code that when light hits the photocell activates it

[Soeren]

Hi,

If i used some type of switch around the mine (LED) would it be possible to --have 30 of these in to one micro controller that when activated cause the beeping to start and stop of the switch is deactivated? 

You could make some concentric rings in plexy (and make them matte with emery paper) and just detect light in one place for each ring.
An LED (infrared is the most powerfull, but a visible light LED will be easier to work with - "Pure Green" is the most powerfull of the visible LED's (it's somewhere between lime and turquoise in color).

If you wanna teach how SONAR works, you should have the constant pings and then double pings with their intermediate delay depending on distance, to simulate the ping echo.