First Laboratory Session For Robotics Course

Hello, Hola, Namaste, Vanakam, Néih Hóu to All My Blog Readers.

            The above sentence is the result of meeting a lot of internationals in HKUST. Today (9-9-11), I had my first ever laboratory session for the Introduction to Electro-Robot Design course. For those of you who don’t know me that well, I am a robotics freak so this lab session really got me going.

Just a few days before I had my Computer Lab Session for JAVA. I was slightly late for it as I couldn’t find the place in such a vast campus. The lab work proposed for us was slightly advanced than what we had done in the lectures so I was not able procure the Bonus Point.

         The Robotic Lab session was scheduled at 3.00 pm today right after my ENGG 1130 course which ends at 2.50 pm. This time around, I did not take any chances. Few hours before the session, I printed out the lab manuals and notes. When the clock struck 2.50 pm, I got up excitedly and started navigating myself using the snapshot of the PathAdvisor screen worrying that I might be late again due to the difficulty in finding the lab. PathAdvisor is a program that was developed by the students here in HKUST a few years back. It shows you the direction from one point to another in the University Campus.

          This time around I got a bit lucky. I found the class almost effortlessly thanks to PathAdvisor. I went into the class totally confused as this was my first lab session. We were told to sit down and complete the Pre-Lab work. Then came the most exciting part. The Teaching Assistants and Student Helpers started distributing the Robotic Kits. It was a kit called Navidroid developed by a company which specialises in educational robotic kits that was started by a group of HKUST Alumni. As what I have heard, this company has been evolving and growing as time passes.

            My kit was numbered 93. My heart just leapt when we were told that we get to keep the kit till the end of the semester. Me and my lab partner, Eric, opened the box and started counting the parts using a checklist that was given to us. Once we completed the check, we just chucked all the papers one side and started building the robot according to the manual.

          The robot started taking its form very quickly and we finished within building the robot within 30 minutes. One thing that was a bit disappointing was the fact that we were not allowed to handle any electronic components as we were not qualified yet (NOOOO!). One of the Student Helpers helped us to connect the wireless control unit and tested it using a remote. He was kind enough to let us navigate the robot up to the Teaching Assistant to get it verified and our name jotted down for grading purposes. Since most of the other teams were not ready, we were allowed to play with our robot for a while. We also took a few pictures. Then when the next team came, our robot’s brain had to be taken out and it was time for us to pack. It was a bit nostalgic as we would not be able to see our robot for another week. Anyways we decided to pack it and returned the kit to the Lab Assistant. That was the end of my first robotic lab session.

 My first robot

 Workspace

Electronic components of my robot