Medium Motor – Pick Up, Scoop, Drag, Hit and Throw!

Screen Shot 2017 04 20 at 19.47.50 1 - Medium Motor - Pick Up, Scoop, Drag, Hit and Throw!

INTRO AND LEARNING GOALS

Use the medium motor to power an attachment that will lift or move objects around. In this tutorial we’ll explore how we can use the medium motor.
  • Learn how to create a simple mechanism to change the direction of movement
  • Understand how to fix the medium motor and its attachment to a robot
  • Explore programming the medium motor
  • Investigate the possibilities of using your medium motor to pick up or grab different objects

LET’S DO A REALLY QUICK BUILD…

In this video, Colin shows how to build a mechanism that will get your robot lifting, dragging or even throwing! Using the ‘two funky black’ gears and a few other bricks you’ll be up and scooping in no time at all!

LET’S GET PROGRAMMING…

Programming the medium motor is simple but you will need to try out different values to get the desired result. In this video, John also also demonstrates using a Loop block.
col - Medium Motor - Pick Up, Scoop, Drag, Hit and Throw!

SOME TEACHING THOUGHTS… from Colin

  • Plug the medium motor into Port A and remember to ‘click’ that cable into place.
  • Start with a low power level so that you can see the effect – and avoid your mechanism breaking itself off!
  • If your mechanism is moving in the wrong direction, change the ‘power’ level to a negative number.
  • Your program may need to ‘reverse’ the motor position to place an object that was lifted perhaps.
  • Add other bricks to the mechanism to make it achieve the precise movement that you want.
  • When the motor is ‘stopped’ (if it’s obstructed for instance) from completing the number of degrees, it will not do anything else until it is allowed to complete the specified number of degrees (so when the obstruction is removed).
Robot5 04 - Medium Motor - Pick Up, Scoop, Drag, Hit and Throw!

ROBOT WORKOUT (WHERE NEXT?)

  • Experiment grabbing, lifting and moving objects of different sizes, shapes and weights. Developing a robot waiter is a cool thing to do!
  • See if students can get the robot to sense an object and then pick it up
  • A personal favourite – and quite tricky – can the students get a robot to throw a ball…
legoev3logo - Medium Motor - Pick Up, Scoop, Drag, Hit and Throw!

GREAT SUPPORT FROM LEGO EDUCATION

DESKTOP:
  • From the lobby (the starting page) go to ROBOT EDUCATOR and choose BASICS and MOVE OBJECT. The lesson gives instructions for building the standard robot, adding a dragging mechanism and programming them.
TABLET:
  • Choose the ROBOT EDUCATOR tab and select MOVE OBJECT to see the same lesson there.