1996 - Lego Robot Workshop 2 Date: 12-13 July Place: Rm 401 Axon Building, University of Queensland Cost: $120 per head The LEGO Robot Workshop is a hands-on, learning by doing class in which participants design and build a robot to partake in a small competition to be held at the end of the workshop. The machines for the workshop are robots. They carry their own power and their own computer on board, and require no human intervention. These robots must navigate around the playing surface and intereact with each other and game objects. Participants will gain valuable technical experience with mechanical, electronic and computer systems by resolving the various sub-problems that make up the total design task. The course is run over one night and one day, with material provided in advance for perusal and reflection. Participants do not need to bring anything other than a willingness to get involved! A report on the previous workshop, held in April, is now available. This covers the workshop's activities in more detail and has some photos of the robots built during the day. Schedule On receipt of payment Send out manuals and documentation for the course, about 50-60 pages including: Technical information on the sensors and board How to program the board in C LEGO construction tips Robot programming techniques Rules for a simple contest Other administrivia Friday night 7:00pm - 9:00pm Preparation workshop to review printed material, answer questions, stimulate design discussion and introduce the LEGO lab. Saturday 8:30am - 12:30pm Robot building and programming with tutorial supervision 12:30pm - 1:30pm BBQ lunch provided 1:30pm - 5:30pm Finalize robot design and debug program with tutors 5:30pm - 6:30pm Run the contest 6:30pm ... Refreshments and reflections Enrolment details Robot design teams will have a minimum of two - you can nominate your partner beforehand or have a partner arranged for you. If you want a bigger team that is OK. All equipment required for the course will be provided. Participants may keep their documentation. Participants do not require any special knowledge of electronics or microprocessors. However, each group will need someone with at least some programming experience in a procedural language - ideally C, but folks who know Pascal or Fortran quickly pick up the new syntax (which will be described in detail in the documentation). Groups of non-programmers are welcome, but will probably find learning how to program interferes with learning about robots. Cost will be $120 per person, with a minimum of ten people to run the course. We can accomodate up to ten groups in the LEGO lab, with total numbers up to thirty, if people wish to work in groups of three or larger. Payment should be made at least a week in advance by cheque (made out to the "Dept. of Elec. And Comp. Eng., Uni. of Qld"). The enrolment form is available in text form for printing. Please forward your completed form along with payment to : LEGO Robot Workshop Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Queensland ST LUCIA QLD 4072