The following are all projects designed by Jake Wilkinson as projects for students to build in RealRobots classes. Each project is built around a variety of engineering, coding and tech skills that students will learn as they build their own.
A box made from laser cut plywood. Gears are driven by a programmable microcontroller and students can decide on their own locking system. We've used RFIDs, vibration sensors so it can be unlocked with knocks, and a compass so the whole box can become a combination lock that detects when it is turned.
A 3D printer designed to be easy for students to build from scratch and very tolerant of rough treatment.
A quick 2D plotter, also software to convert raster images to vectors in some interesting ways.
A 5-way useless box containing a custom PCB with auto power-down and battery management.
A remote control, dual motor spiderbot. The legs originally came from a much simpler toy, but we upgraded them with more power and control.
Dual motor tank with rubber wristbands for tracks. Students all build the same basic platform and then augment it with their own weapons and defenses. Controlled by a separate wifi controller.
Candy sorting machine, designed to teach problem solving and coding to students.
Seems initially intimidating but each separate component is relatively basic and separate to code for.
Includes a custom PCB, standard NEMA17 step motor with a magnetic encoder added, RGB led and photoresistor, hobby servo for bin selection.
Auto-opening lockbox that responds to an RFID card.
Raspberry Pi laptop build from laser cut plywood. Runs Kano, a linux distribution designed to teach children.
A second 3D printer, less robust than the wooden model but much easer to build and work on.
Custom flight controller PCB with ESP32 brains. Controlled by an ESPNow connected controller. Arms are bamboo chopsticks.
Firmware is completely custom.
An autonomous Arduino robot with sonar object avoidance and IR remote control.
