When someone says a “ROBOT” you probably think of a human alike machine like in “Terminator”, “Robocop” or “Transformers” movies. However, most of robots do not look and feel like humans at all.
Every robot has a purpose and its design is a result of understanding the purpose of a robot and tasks a robot has to work on.
That’s why any robotics project starts with understanding of a purpose and specific requirements a robot has to be able to satisfy. That’s why it is a very important part in robotics design is to go and learn about a process where robot is going to be used.
Based on this information a team of robotics engineers will build a prototype. They would think of how robot is going to move, sense, get energy and manipulate objects. That’s why it is important to understand the basic components of robots and it is exactly what we do during robotics classes. Children learn about basic blocks you use to build a robot, learn about problems and requirements and work on robotics projects to see how an idea and requirement transforms into the end result.
Then a robot has to be coded (or programmed) in order to perform a set of tasks or instructions. All instructions are in a form a program or a code. This piece of code is stored in a memory of a robot and controls robot’s behaviour.
And the final step of a robot design is testing the robot. Give a robot problem to solve. Robots love it. Their favourite meals are some cool maths games and challenges for breakfast, lunch and dinner.