AI STEM Activities

This time I have designed three STEM projects to make at classroom using micro:bit and the new Cutebot Pro from Eleckfreaks.

Moreover using its Smart AI Lens, I have designed projects that will allow to introduce our students the basics of the AI.

The projects are the following:

1. Configure a paint robot
2. Configure the robot to use a color, previously recognized by the camera, and to move following the arrow address recognized in a card
3. Configure the robot as an Automated Guide Vehicle (AGV) with traffic signs recognition

I hope this project be useful for you.

• Cutebot Pro from Elecfreaks
• Two micro:bit boards
• Smart AI Lens from Elecfreaks
• Joystick:bit from Elecfreaks
• Two micro servo motors SG90
• Two marker pens
• One 18650 lithium battery
• 3D Printer

To make the projects, first we have to design and print three 3D pieces:

• The first one is a piece to place the AI Lens to the Cutebot Pro in the front of the Cutebot
• The second one is a small platform to place two servo motors in the rear of the Cutebot
• The last one is a plastic card holder as you can see in the images. We will need two card holders.

Once the IA Lens have been placed in the Cutebot Pro you have to plug in into one of the two IIC ports availables as you can see in the images.

After that, you have to fix the small platform in the rear of the Cutebot using two little screws, glue the servo motors in the place you can see in the image and connect them to the servo expansion ports placed in the rear of the Cutebot.

CHALLENGE: Configure the robot to move using a joystick:bit and paint using marker pens. The marker pens can be raised or lowered using servos.

We can divide this project in several tasks for our students:

• Using Tinkercad the students will have to design one 3D piece using Tinkercad to hold the marker pens with servos. The students are free to install one, two, three or four servos and to choose the colors of the marker pens. I have used two servo motors and two markerpens (red and green)
• Another group will program using Makecode the radio communication between the micro:bit in the joystick:bit and the micro:bit in the Cutebot.
• Finally, other group of students will have to program using Makecode the movements of the Cutebot following the signals received from the joystick:bit and the movement of the marker pens.

To finish the project, all the code programmed have to be joined in one program to upload in the Cutebot.

You can download the code for the micro:bit in the robot and the code for the micro:bit in the joystick:bit from here

• The students have to use the "cutebotpro" extension
• In this project I have used the S1 and S2 signal in the robot. The students have to adjust the right angle for the servo when the robot has to paint or not. You can see in the first image the functions "Paint" and "noPaint"
• I have programmed other functions like "DrawSquare", "DrawTriangle" or "DrawCircle" to test and improve them as you can see in the images
• I have used the radio features of both micro:bit for the communication

CHALLENGE: Configure the robot to recognize the color and the arrow address of the cards. After that, the robot will move and paint towards the arrow address in the color recognized

This time the project will use the AI Lens that is able to recognize images and shapes in cards.

It is a nice project to introduce our kids to the AI project

We can divide this challenge in several tasks for our students:

• Introduce the students in the basics of AI
• One group have to program using Makecode how to recognize colors and arrow address
• Another group have to program the functions to move the robot in the left and right side and back direction and to move the marker pens up and down

Again and to finish the project, all the code programmed have to be joined in one program to upload in the Cutebot.

You can download the code for the micro:bit in the robot and the code for the micro:bit in the joystick:bit from here

• The students have to use the "cutebotpro" and the "PlantX-AI" extensions
• This project has to recognize colors and traffic cards, so you have to initialize and switch the function of the AI Lens twice to switch the recognition function as you can see in the "forever" block of the code: first the AI Lens recognizes de color and then the traffic card
• After that the robot paints following the arrow address recognized
• It uses the joystick:bit to initialize all the process when press the 'F' button

CHALLENGE: Configure the robot to recognize traffic signs. Configure a line following map and use the traffic signs to guide the robot in the circuit

Again this is a nice project to introduce our students in the basics of the IA and in the world of the automated guided vehicles (AGVs)

This time we can divide this challenge in the following tasks:

• Introduce the students in the basics of the IA and in the world of automated guided vehicles
• One group have to program how to recognize traffic signs
• Another group have to program how the robot must move following the black line of the circuit and how to move the robot when a traffic sign has been recognized.

To finish the project, all the code programed must be joined to upload to the robot

You can download the code for the micro:bit from here

• The students have to use the "cutebotpro" and the "PlantX-AI" extensions
• This time all the code is programmed inside the "forever" block
• The AI Lens is initialized to recognize traffic cards.
• When the "back" traffic card is recognized the robot rotate and when the "stop" one is recognized the robot stops.