This page has basic information about Robots, shows you how to get started building Robots, and some fun links. Use the links, in the table below, to move up and down the page.
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INFORMATION

Let's start with the answers to three simple questions: " What are robots?", "Why do we have Robots?" and "Who makes Robots?"

What are Robots? The simple answer is: "Robots are machines that people can control." Some people control their Robots with remote control devices and some people create programs that tell their machine what to do. Some Robot builders do both.

Here are a few links for a bit more information:

• NASA dictionary definition
• The Basics - from 42explore.com
• Robots - from 101science.com
• The History and Working of Robots - from the Tech Museum of Innovation

Why do we have Robots? There are many reasons for having Robots. You can make a Robots to help solve a problem. Your mom or dad might have a Robot that cuts the grass or vacuums. You can use a Robot to learn how to solve a problem. NASA and the Canadian Space Agency use Robots to help fly in space and to move things. You can build a Robot to have fun. You can build a LEGO Robot to help clean up your room or to see whether your "bot", or a friends, is faster, stronger, or smarter.

• LEGO cleanup creation - youtube.com

Who makes Robots? Students in elementary and high schools can make Robots. University students and their teachers can make Robots. Engineers can make Robots. You just need a bit of information to get started. Then, with some thought and effort, you can make more powerful Robots. By the time you finish school there may be a lot of careers, or jobs, that need the same skills that people who make Robots have learned.

• Robo-Zone - from Ambleside School in Great Britain

BUILDING ROBOTS

Some of the school Robotics Clubs, in the Comox Valley, start teaching students to assemble Robots from grade three on. (The point where the small parts become less of a swallowing hazard.) We start by using simple and affordable Mecanno and LEGO kits. This section has some guides to both products. There are other ways to get started. Our general rule is to start simple and then make things more complicated.

• LEGO Digital Designer
• Constructopedia - from LEGO for teachers
• LEGO Mindstorms - basic building instructions
• 60 plus projects with building instructions
  

• Meccano history
• Multi-models
• Meccano video - BBC

FUN

There should always be some time for a bit of fun. Check out these links:

• Dodger's White Out - CBC
• Robot puzzle - NASA
• Space technology - NASA
• Robot crush
• Build a robot
• Wall-e build a bot - Disney
• Build-a-bot - BBC (works best in Internet Explorer)
• Runaway robot
• Soda Constructor
• Simple Machines Game - from Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago, USA)

• Scratch - use scratch to design your own games and activities - from MIT

These videos may interest you:

• Meccano videos - youtube.com

This web page is meant as a starting point. Feel free to send us your suggestions.

Thanks.

Stewart Savard (eLibrarian) and Randy Grey (Career Coordinator)

Updated October 2, 2009