Robotics Workshop Help

[androb4]

Hey CD, I'm going to have a workshop for a team that I'm mentoring this year to teach the students all about FIRST, CAD, all about the robot, etc. I plan to have about a week of workshops sometime in early September once we get some new students in. I am in need of some material like power points, or some tips on what I should include in the workshop.

Any help would be much appriciated.

Thanks.

[sanddrag]

Have you checked the CD Media White Papers section of this site?

[androb4]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Have you checked the CD Media White Papers section of this site?

Perhaps I shall spend some time browsing first..

Thanks

[Jibsy]

1114 has a pretty good collection of workshops that you could work off. These are great for new teams/members who have little or zero previous knowledge.

http://www.simbotics.org/resources/workshops

Hopefully you find those helpful!

[CalTran]

If you search "[DFTF]" then Dr. Joe has put together some absolutely wonderful threads, Drinking from the Firehose, that got him back in the loops, and are wonderful for anyone either new or interested in finding out more about a topic.

[Ziv]

The following may be helpful if your team is using Java or C++. (They're written in Java, but the concepts translate.)

To introduce new students to Java and programming in general, we used Robocode. Exactly how helpful this is could vary, but I think it's a very cool tool and can be very educational, especially if you have a person or two on your team who knows some programming already. One thing it does very, very well is get people who don't see themselves as computer nerds interested in programming (kind of like FRC does for engineering in general). Their site has a few useful links.

At kickoff, I gave this presentation, the second half of which is a quick introduction to WPILib in Java and the command-subsystem programming paradigm. For more detail, you'll want the WPILib cookbook or the actual javadoc, but I don't think you want to throw those things straight at new programmers.

Good luck! Tell us all how everything goes!

[JB987]

Be sure to check out some of the great vids at AndyMark.com

[bardd]

I held a build (mechanical+electrical) workshop for the team about a month ago. I can't really give you material, unless you're fine with Hebrew, but I do have some tips:

*Beforehand, make absolutely sure you have all the equipment you need. I found myself half way through spending around 8 hours trying to find someone in the area with the part I discovered missing and needed for the next day.

*Make the students part of the process. Instead of just talking and have them listening, have them build a small robot (just a simple drivetrain, for them to understand the concept). I found that while active, the students paid alot more attention.

*Let them think. Once in a while, I tried to confuse them a bit (for example, telling then the slots' order in the cRIO is this and then telling them it's different) and let them try to figure things out. They didn't really like it, but they understood those subjects better than others.

*Ask for their feedback. at the end of each day I asked the students how I did and found that many things I thought were simple to understand were harder for them than some I considered difficult.

If you're interested in the ppt's I made (I wrote a design presentation and one about different types of mechanisms), pm me and I'll see if I can translate them.

[Dchandler]

On our website, we have a multitude of team-produced tutorials and links to others that we've found useful. In the Resources tab we have it divided into: Mechanical, Electrical, Programming, Scouting/Strategy, Game Documents, and Organizational. From how to build a mini-meter to tutorials for Java and Labview. Anything for your heart's content.

Are you going to record your workshops by any chance? I'm interested in watching the finished product. I want to do something similar if the other students and I at my university ever get around to starting a rookie team. Best of luck to you guys.

[DaveFrederick]

The high school that I mentor at teaches JAVA.
I am working on a presentation on the Command Based JAVA.

Search for the string "Command Base Programming Tutorials/Help?" and you will find a draft of the presentation that I am working on.

I am about 40% complete but have been working steadily on it. I will post a new presentation later this weekend.

Please review my draft and provide any comments you may have.

Regards,
Dave Frederick, Mentor
Team 1985, Manassas, VA

[ebarker]

Here is a plethora of resources: http://www.the-innovation-center.org

Make sure to checkout the resources on the main page and to also drill down into the FIRST section.

[DaveFrederick]

Here is an update to the Training material that I have been developing.
About 70% complete but pretty usable.

Remaining work is add a lesson on PID, camera tracking and validate everthing works. I have a couple of areas to clean up since I'm still pretty new to JAVA.

I would appreciate any feedback on the presentation.

Presentation: "How to create programs with the Command Based JAVA Approach"

Regards,
Dave Frederick, Mentor
Team 1985, Manassas, VA