CS 372: Artificial Intelligence
Robot Building Lab
Session 1

Resource Kit
Outfitting A Robot Laboratory
Sample Syllabus for an AI Course
Robot Laboratory Handout
Session 2


This is the first lab. Today, we will: form groups. Each group will be issued a lab kit containing the following items:

  1. A Handy Board Controller.
  2. A Serial Interface & Battery Charger Unit. This is used for connecting the Handy Board to the computer as well as charging the Handy Board's battery.
  3. A MAC DIN-8 serial cable (for connecting the MAC to the Serial Interface Unit).
  4. An RJ11 modular cable. This cable looks like (and is!) a regular phone cable. It is used for connecting the Serial Interface Unit with the Handy Board.
  5. A power adapter for the Handy Board.
  6. An MAC disk containing Interactive C V2.853. This disk contains the programs and the libraries for use in the Interactive C environment.
  7. A spiral-bound copy of the Handy Board Technical Manual. This manual contains:

  8. A flash light.
  9. A LEGO battery pack.
  10. 9-volt LEGO motors.
  11. One LEGO cable.
  12. A bunch of wired sensors.
  13. An activity box that can hold all of the above items.

Please note that the total cost of all of the above items is $500.00. These are mostly hard to replace parts, so treat them with utmost care (that is why we have provided the fancy box!). We will also have several boxes of LEGO building materials. You may borrow items from these boxes in order to build your robots. We will have a total of over 8000 little pieces! Once again, please, try to keep them organized in their bins. Make sure that you do not leave these lying around in the lab. Thanks!

Exercise

Read the paper, The Art of LEGO Design, by Fred Martin. Practice building your first mobile platform. Read the sections on gearing carefully. I will show you some other ways of building effective gear trains. An excellent example of a four-wheeled robot chassis, along with assembly instructions can be found in the LEGO Bug pages. You may use this as a starting point. Experiment, build, modify, or design your own for next week.


Resource Kit
Outfitting A Robot Laboratory
Sample Syllabus for an AI Course
Robot Laboratory Handout
Session 2 ÿ