Evaluation and Reflection: Final Stage of the MYP Design Cycle

This term during Information Systems (Robotics) we looked into the basics of Robotics. Some topics within this unit were the rules of robotics, the basic components of robots, merging robot technology and more. This unit gave us a good understanding of what robots are and what they can be used for. Throughout this unit we poster the information we found on our blogs and wikis. So we have a good document of what we have learnt this term, which we will be able to use for future reference. For this term the objective was to 'build an autonomous robot.'

I felt that using our wiki spaces as a tool for documenting information worked really well and was very useful. This was because we could not loose our Wiki the same way that we would loose a piece of paper or a notebook. Although at times there were some technical difficulties such as documents saving. This happened to me on a few occasions, one page refused to safe-the window would 'not respond' every time I tried to save. Some things that I felt brought down the level of the project were the programming software that we were supposed to use to program the robot because there were problems downloading the software onto all of the computers. Another problem that we had was the hardware that we were using for this project, mindstorms. Mindstorms is an easy to use robotics building kit that you can buy and all of the pieces that you need are in the kit, it also includes a catalogue which contains a host of robots that you can build by using the pieces in the kit. Mindstorms created problems for this project because in most kits not all of the pieces were in the kit. This made it difficult to build the robot in many cases. I don't think that this is a fault of mindstorms I just believe it was our individual case. If we had mindtorms and robolab all working correctly then I believe everything would have gone very well because the two products are designed to work with the other.



Through this project all of the programs that we used were Wikispaces, Blogger, Animoto, Windows logo Maker, YouTube, Google, Robolab, Mindstorms and other Internet tools.



During this project we didn't fully achieve our objective due to loss of time through technical difficulties. This meant that the greater majority of the class was not able to program their robot. So most of the class only got the chance to finish building their robots. This was disappointing but at least we realized what we had to do. Thanks to useful tool such as YouTube we know what our robot should have been able to do.



I believe that this project could have been improved by the Lego Mindstorms and Robolab being tested before we started the project so that we could have a clearer idea of what we would be able to get achieved in the project. Also if there were obstacles that we knew about before the project then we could plan the project so that we plan around the problems.

Here are some of my findings from this unit. For more information on Robotics visit my Wiki at http://14das.qataracademy.wikispaces.net/

The rules of Robotics (Isaac Asimov's Rules of Robotics)

1. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
   
2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
   
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

• We need rules for robots so that we can protect ourselves against their power and skills. So that they don't harm humans or take over our civilization.

The basic components of Robotics

1. Sensors» sense information about the envioronment around the robot.
2. Processor» This decides what action the robot should take based on the information from the sensors
3. Actuators» controls the gears, levers, pulleys and other output devices to get the job done
4. Power» makes all of the other components work

Hondas' "Asimo"

Asimo is a Robot made by Honda that has been programmed to do many things. Asimo can kick a ball, walk up stairs, run, ride a bicycle and conduct an orchestra.

From this unit I have learnt a lot about how robots affect and can be used in our society. I feel that this is valuable information because as humans keep developing new robotics technologies civilians will most likely be using them in the future. So now after this unit I have a better general idea of Robots.