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Robot Lab

This website contains instructional materials and photos from our robot program in the class PH 192 Introductory Physics Lab. Most of the students participating in this class are life science majors. An overview of this project appears in the following article:

Lowe, M.*, Moore, H., Langrall, E., and Gehrman, C. "Robots in the Introductory Physics Laboratory," American Journal of Physics 76, 895-902(2008). (*Corresponding author.)

Beginning in 1989 and ending in 2007, four lab periods of class PH 192 were dedicated to building robots, followed by a larger competition on a separate day. Prior to these robot labs, the students were introduced to basic circuit principles and the components necessary for building a robot. Some of these circuit activities can be found in the following files:

The instructions for each of the four lab periods are shown below:

Day One:

Day Two Instructions

Day Three Instructions

Day Four Instructions

Competition: Track 

Two types of boards have been used in this program: the Scorpion HX and a power amplifier board that we designed. The following files contain information on the power amplifier board and augment what is described in the article indicated above:

Loyola Shuttle Bus Robot
Loyola shuttlebus robot 
Bar Maid Robot
Barmaid robot
Robotics class
Students working during the lab

Christmas lights in tailpipe
Christmas lights in tailpipe

Tetris robot
Tetris robot
Students checking a robot
Students debugging their robot
robot competition
Competition
Two batmobiles
Two batmobiles
Scorpion radio remote control
Scorpion radio remote control
Shark robot
Shark robot
Robotic arm
Robot arm with photocells
Alien Robot
Ed and alien robot
Yellow shuttlebus
Yellow shuttlebus
Lady Bug Robot
Ladybug robot
Voice robot
Voice robot
Tiger robot
Tiger robot
Green Dino Robot
Dino robot
Jones Robot
Jones robot
Line Tracker Camcorder
Linetracker
Photocells for linetracker
Photocells for linetracker
Boat Robot
Boat robot
Brown Fork Robot
Brown fork robot
Green House Robot
House robot
Conestoga wagon robot
Conestoga wagon robot
Servos for remote controle
Servos for remote controle (Method 1)
Auto lights robot
Auto lights
Brown Face Robot
Brown face robot
Yellow Face Robot
Yellow face robot
Magenta face robot
Magenta face robot
Red Face Robot
Red face robot
Scoobydoo Robot
Scooby Doo robot
Alien message in robot
Alien message... "Take me to your lab teacher"
Fire Robot
Fire robot
Camouflage Robot
Camouflage robot
Elephant robot
Elephant robot
Cheese robot
Cheese robot
Two students and robots
Chuck, two students, and two robots
R2D2 and radio remote control
R2D2 and radio remote control