Modular Robotics cubelets robot blocks Bedienungsanleitung
1860 38th St.
Boulder, CO 80301
www.modrobotics.com
Getting Started Guide
© Modular Robotics, 2016 www.modrobotics.comPage 2
1. Make Your First Robot
The Dimbot – Uses a clear Flashlight Action
block, black Distance Sense block, and a
blueish-gray Battery block. It doesn’t matter
where you put the Battery block.
When you snap together a Battery block, a
Distance Sense block, and a Flashlight Action
block, the Flashlight Action block lights up.
You control its brightness by moving your
hand or an object closer or further from the
“eyes” on the black Distance block.
This robot’s light dims when you move your
hand away, so you could call it a Dimbot.
2. Understanding Your Cubelets
Cubelets come in three types: Sense blocks,
Action blocks, and Think blocks. Sense
blocks are black, Action blocks are clear,
and Think blocks are different colors. Most
Cubelets have five connection faces and one
special face, which identifies the function
of that Cubelet. Others have six connection
faces and their function is indicated by their
color.
Every Cubelet has a small LED light in one
corner. When the Cubelet is part of a robot
and the robot’s Battery block is turned on,
the LED light is on, too. The LED light shows
that the Cubelet is getting power and talking
to its neighbors. Each Cubelet robot must
have one Battery block which powers all the
other blocks in the robot.
The Battery block has a small switch. When
you slide it to the “O,” the Battery block is off.
Slide to the line, “|,” and it is on. Turn it off to
save battery life when you aren’t playing with
your Cubelets.
The Battery block has an internal,
rechargeable battery. To recharge the
Battery block, plug it into a micro-USB power
source.
Each connecting face of a Cubelet has three
conductors. The outer ring and magnets
conduct ground; the inner metal ring
conducts power; and the center pin conducts
data from one Cubelet to the next. These
three conductors must connect with their
neighboring counterparts in order for two
Cubelets to communicate.
© Modular Robotics, 2016 www.modrobotics.comPage 3
3. What’s a Robot?
4. Swap Sense Blocks
A robot is a machine that senses its
surroundings and acts on its surroundings.
Every robot needs a Sense block and an
Action block. Sense blocks are black and
Action blocks are clear.
Every robot needs power. The blue-gray block
is the Battery block. The Battery block has
an on-off switch. Make sure it’s on before you
start to play; turn it off when you’re done.
To build a robot, you will need a gray block,
a black block, and a clear block. Just snap
them together and you’ve built a robot!
Now take out the Dimbot’s Distance Sense
block. Put a Brightness Sense block in its
place. You still have a flashlight robot, but now
its brightness depends on the light around it.
Test it: Cover the Brightness Sense block with
your hand and the flashlight dims. Move your
hand away and the Flashlight gets brighter.
These cubes are modular which means you
can swap any Sense block for any other Sense
block. You’ll still have a robot, just a different
robot. In the Dimbot we swapped a Distance
Sense block for a Brightness Sense block to
make a Light-sensitive Dimbot.
This guide is also available on the Modular
Robotics website!
Accelerate your learning with a quick and easy
getting started video, watch it on YouTube.
http://www.modrobotics.com/
cubelets/cubelets-getting-started/
https://youtu.be/YPAOCOJibfQ
© Modular Robotics, 2016 www.modrobotics.comPage 4
5. Swap Action Blocks
This simple brightness go-bot robot has a
Drive Action block (left) that moves the robot
when its Brightness Sense block sees light.
The gray block on the right is the Battery
block.
You can also swap Action blocks. With a Light-
sensitive Dimbot now put a Drive Action block
in place of the Flashlight Action block. Now
your robot has a Brightness Sense and a Drive
block (and, of course, a Battery block).
This robot moves when it senses light. In a
bright room it’s a fast robot. In a dark room
it’s a Slowbot.
Try more swapping.
What if you use a Speaker Action block
instead of the Drive Action block? You get a
Canarybot.
What about a Distance Sense block instead of
a Brightness Sense block? You get a Fraidybot
or a Friendlybot depending on the way the
wheels are positioned. By turning the Drive
Action block so that the robot goes backward
instead of forward, you’ll have a Friendlybot or
Fraidybot.
© Modular Robotics, 2016 www.modrobotics.comPage 5
6. How Numbers Flow
The arrow shows the flow of a number from
the Brightness Sense block to the Flashlight
Action block.
Each black Sense block senses some property
of its surroundings and turns it into a number.
Each Sense block tells its number to all its
neighbors. You can see them “talking” as
the green lights on each block flicker. (The
Bluetooth flashes different colors.)
For example, the Knob Sense block senses
how much you rotate its knob. When you
turn the knob all the way counterclockwise
(left), the Knob Sense block produces a small
number. Turn it clockwise, to the right, to
produce a big number.
The Brightness Sense block senses how light
the room is. In a dark place, the Brightness
Sense block produces a small number. In
a light place, the Brightness Sense block
produces a big number.
Each Action block takes numbers from its
neighbors and turns the numbers into an
action.
The Flashlight Action block takes a number
and lights its lamp. A big number makes
the lamp bright. A small number makes the
lamp dim. Think of the number as hopping or
flowing from one block to the next. Numbers
are flowing through the blocks of the robot
from Sense blocks to Action blocks all the
time. That’s what makes the robot behave
the way it does.
Numbers don’t flow through Sense blocks.
Each Sense block produces its own number,
so it doesn’t pass numbers from its
neighbors.
© Modular Robotics, 2016 www.modrobotics.comPage 6
7. Using the Bar Graph to See the Numbers
You can use the Bar Graph Action block to
understand what’s going on inside your
robot—to show the numbers flowing from
block to block.
Attach the Bar Graph Action block to any
block in a robot. The Bar Graph Action block
shows how big the number is. If the number
is big, all the cells in the bar graph light. If
the number is small, only a few light up. If the
number is very small (or zero) no cells light at
all.
Try it. Build a simple Brightness Gobot with
a Brightness Sense block and a Drive Action
block. Attach the Bar Graph Action block to
one of the blocks. If there’s a lot of light, the
Bar Graph Action block will show a full bar
(and the Drive Action block will move fast). If
there’s not much light, the Bar Graph Action
block won’t light much.
You don’t need the Bar Graph Action block to
understand what’s going on with this simple
robot. But, with bigger and more complicated
robots, the Bar Graph Action block can help.
8. Arrangement of Cubelets Makes a Difference
The pictured robots have different versions
because you can put the Drive Action block
into the robot in different ways. One way, the
robot goes straight. The other way, the robot
goes around and around--you could call it a
Turnabot.
It’s not just which Sensor and Action blocks
you choose. It’s also how you position and
situate the Cubelets. The same Cubelets
arranged in a different physical configuration
make different robots.
© Modular Robotics, 2016 www.modrobotics.comPage 7
For example, make a robot and place the
Brightness Sense block so its sensor face
points down. Now it doesn’t see the light. This
Gobot is a Nogobot. No matter how bright the
room is, the robot won’t go. Its Brightness
Sense block doesn’t sense the light.
Try placing the Brightness Sense block to face
in different directions. How does that impact
the robot’s behavior?
9. Stability
Some robots are more stable than others.
These robots all have a Distance Sense block
and a Drive Action block, but the differences in
their assembly produce different behaviors.
Try building a simple Gobot with a Distance
Sense block and a Drive Action block. It’s
stable if you build a train with all three blocks
(the Battery block, the Drive Action block, and
the Distance Sense block) arranged in a row.
The Distance Sense block produces a big
number when something gets near it. You can
chase this Fraidybot around with your hand.
When you get near the Fraidybot, it runs away.
© Modular Robotics, 2016 www.modrobotics.comPage 8
If you build this robot as a tower instead of
a train, it still works, but it’s no longer stable:
approach the Distance Sense block and the
Drive Action block starts moving. Accelerate
too quickly and the tower falls over.
You can fix this: add a block at the bottom
next to the Drive Action block. Any block will
do, but try one of the green blocks, either a
Passive block or a Blocker block.
Notice that you can build this Gobot in
different ways. If the Distance Sense block
faces the same direction that the Drive Action
block moves, your robot comes towards your
hand.
If you turn the Distance Sense so it faces the
opposite direction, it moves away. You can
chase it around with your hand or change the
direction of the wheels on the Drive Action
Block.
© Modular Robotics, 2016 www.modrobotics.comPage 9
10. A Sense Can Control Multiple Action Blocks
You can use a single Sense block to control
one or more Action blocks.
Build a Lighthousebot that uses the Knob
Sense block to control the speed and the
brightness of a rotating robot tower. The
Lighthousebot uses the Knob Sense block to
control the speed of the Rotate Action block
and the brightness of the Flashlight Action
block.
Build a simple Gobot with a Brightness Sense
block and a Drive Action block: It goes when it
senses light.
Add a Speaker Action block. Now it goes and
chirps when it senses light. Add a Flashlight
Action block. Now it goes and chirps and lights
up when it senses light. Add all the Action
blocks you want. They all respond to the same
Brightness Sense block.
With a lot of light on the Brightness Sense
block, all the Action blocks will act a lot.
Without light on the Brightness Sense block,
the Action blocks won’t do much.
© Modular Robotics, 2016 www.modrobotics.comPage 10
11. Think Blocks
You’ve met the Battery block, and the black
Sense blocks and the clear Action blocks. It’s
time to meet the colored Think blocks. Think
blocks are the colored blocks.
Because Robots are machines that sense
first, then think, then act, we need to be
sure Think blocks are placed between the
Sense block and the Action block you want to
impact.
In addition to the green Passive block, the
simplest Think block is the red Inverse Think
block.
12. The Inverse Think Block
To make a Nightbot light up when it’s in a dark
place, you need a Red Inverse block. Ooops!
This robot as pictured is wrong. Can you figure
out why?
Let’s go back to the Light-sensitive Dimbot. It
has a Brightness Sense block and a Flashlight
Action block. (It also has a Battery block, of
course, but we’re going to stop mentioning the
Battery block because every robot has one.)
The Dimbot made a silly flashlight. Its lamp
is bright when it’s in a bright room, and
dark when it’s in a dark room. We’d prefer a
flashlight robot that turns on when it’s dark,
and turns off when it’s light. That’s why we
need the red Inverse Think block.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
