Robotics
Delve into the exciting world of robotics, AI, and programming! Suggested projects can be varied in terms of time and skill level required.
Lecture-based Design Task
This course consists of a series of interactive lectures and a design task for 15-17 year olds. The online course is between 12 and 15 hours long and covers:
Introduction to engineering & the engineering design process (including bridge / tower building activities).
Robotics – history, how they work, current state-of-the-art.
Artificial Intelligence – brief history, artificial neural networks (aka. deep learning), examples of how AI is used, artificial general intelligence.
Case study – self-driving cars.
Ethics and challenges in robotics & AI.
Design project - Identify a problem that can be solved with robotics & AI, then apply what you learnt in each module to your own robot.
Anki Vector Robot Programming
The Anki Vector robot is powered by AI and advanced robotics and is engaged by sight, sound, and touch. This would be great for a project focusing on software and AI, including face recognition and many other autonomous behaviours. Students require some basic programming knowledge (preferably with Python), but this can be taught prior to the course.
Project aim: “Search and rescue” mission. The robot must navigate obstacles, and report the location and type of items it finds in the environment.
Move robot around an obstacle course.
Use text-to-speech / console printing / Anki screen to give status information.
Display and save pictures from the camera.
AI-based object detection (YOLOv3).
Robot mini-challenge.
Introduction to Artificial Intelligence & Computer Vision
Learn the basics of AI and computer vision – one of the hottest topics in AI at the moment, with only a webcam.
Project Aim:
Build a smart security camera.
Requirements:
Understanding of Python programming.
Access the webcam and retrieve images.
Object detection.
Facial recognition.