July 2013 Dancing Robots

TechNike: Bühne frei: Roboter-Tanz [Stage free: Robot Dancing]

Length: 3 days
Program: Enchanting
Front-end: Scratch Puzzle Piece language
Back-end: Lejos (Java) on NXT
Emphasis on symmetry 

With Enchanting did more, faster like with Scratch.  This also meant restructuring lessons plans to include more fast.  

Of course in Austria the robots waltzed.
Featured on the TU Wien Informatik lab website.

Dances

• Designed dance steps(alone): Create own block
• Programmed familiar dances (together) like waltz and mirror partner robot
• Class choreography dance:  Can we do the same thing at same time?

• Repeated sequences of steps using very basics and reacting to sensors;
• Basic symmetric movements: forward/backward; left/right
• Basic forms: line, square, circle (turn in place, in big circle)

Sensors used: 

• as signals to start or stop
• to avoid a wall or robot, 
• to advance to partner
• to follow light and lines as guides.

Display and Sound

• Screen animation to match movements
• Could draw their own
• Music notes as moved
• Beginning and end sounds

Drawing Robot movements: enjoyed exploring

[could come earlier to teach design]

• Figures
• example was a star
• A team tried to draw a heart, points were a probl
• Draw Dance steps
• A team used robot like spiral graph turning circles with slight changes each time