Andrew Carle - mBot for Makers: Conceive, Construct, and Code Your Own Robots at Home or in the Classroom

Copyright 2017 Rick Schertle and Andrew Carle. All rights reserved.

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December 2017: First Edition

Revision History for the First Edition

2017-12-9 First Release

See oreilly.com/catalog/errata.csp?isbn=9781680452969 for release details.

Make:, Maker Shed, and Maker Faire are registered trademarks of Maker Media, Inc. The Maker Media logo is a trademark of Maker Media, Inc. mBot for Makers and related trade dress are trademarks of Maker Media, Inc. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and Maker Media, Inc. was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps. While the publisher and the author have used good faith efforts to ensure that the information and instructions contained in this work are accurate, the publisher and the author disclaim all responsibility for errors or omissions, including without limitation responsibility for damages resulting from the use of or reliance on this work. Use of the information and instructions contained in this work is at your own risk. If any code samples or other technology this work contains or describes is subject to open source licenses or the intellectual property rights of others, it is your responsibility to ensure that your use thereof complies with such licenses and/or rights.

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L ove and gratitude to my daughter, Annika, for making my life a whirlwind of discovery and creativity, and to my awesome partner, Jodi Kittle, for helping me find focus and balance in the midst of that chaos. Thanks to Shelly Willie, who invited me to Chadwick International, which in turn offered the incredible pleasure of daily collaboration with Gary Donahue, whose innovative spirit shines through in every mBot project. Sylvia Martinezs and Gary Stagers Constructing Modern Knowledge Press not only connected me to the powerful history of children and computers, but also the incredible cohort of Maker-educators whom Im lucky enough to call colleagues and friends, including Josh Burker, Jaymes Dec, Angi Chau, Karen Blumberg, and Brian C. Smith.

Andrew

A s in all my life, my wife, Angie, and kids, Kelly and Micah, provide constant fun, encouragement, and inspiration. I love you guys so much! Im thankful to my dad, Bill, for allowing me to work alongside him as a kid and learn along the way. I so much appreciate my staff team and the awesome students and parents at Steindorf K8 STEAM School in San Jose, California, where I teach. Starting a new public school has been a wild ride, especially while writing a book! Thanks to Andrew for his willingness to share his expertise and endure endless questions with a chill attitude. As a lifelong Maker, I have been given so many opportunities by Maker Media over the past ten years to do what I love doingMaking and teaching. Thanks!

Rick

Rick Schertle has taught middle school for over 20 years, and now runs the Maker Lab at Steindorf K8 STEAM School in San Jose, California. Rick has been involved in Maker Faire for many years. He has written nearly two dozen articles for Make:Magazine, including his first article in volume 15 in 2008 on compressed air rockets. He also wrote the book Planes, Gliders, and Paper Rockets from Maker Media. Rick is the cofounder of AirRocketWorks.com.

Andrew Carle has taught in K12 schools for 15 years. He launched the Makers program in 2010 while teaching programming and math at Flint Hill School in Northern Virginia. In 2014, he moved to Korea to expand Chadwick Internationals school-wide Making & Design program. He has presented at Maker Faires and has with MakerEd.org, National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), Virginia Society for Technology in Education (VSTE), and International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), and has been named a Senior FabLearn Fellow for Stanfords Transformative Learning Technologies Lab.

T he Arduino came to prominence as a tool to help designers, artists, and musicians access the power of inexpensive Atmel 8-bit microcontrollers. The Arduino allowed people with deep skills in another discipline to bring their ideas to life. All it took was learning a little programming without having to acquire the full range of skills to work with embedded electronics.

That mission has been so successful over the last decade that it created a need for a new tool, one that could connect young people with minimal skills to the little programming world of Arduino.

Over the last five years, theres been an explosion of kid-friendly programming and robotics tools. After working with dozens of different kits and boards, we became deeply impressed with the mBot. But as the technology choices multiplied, the tutorials and introductory materials offered didnt match the ways we used these platforms in classrooms, Makerspaces, and clubs. We saw the need for a book that offered instructions for specific projects, in conjunction with advice on using the mBots with large groups in a classroom setting. The mBot allows novices to start with idle tinkering on the base mBot, and access higher-level features or add new components when inspiration strikes. This flexibility is crucial for classrooms or cohort groups, since the mBot allows raw beginners and experienced tinkerers to work at their comfort level.