Reflection:

Recently, the class “Robotics and coding” has started a new unit. We will make robot animals that will react to what we do. We learned to use the Microbit. It is a device that can be programmed to complete simple tasks such as turning a motor, detecting light, or, say, show a smile. The Microbit can be programmed online. We are supposed to use the microbit and its motors to create a moving animal (My motors work but the light sensors don’t). My animal is a turtle. It includes a head (detachable), a shell (the front can be opened), two front arms, and two back legs (or…maybe feet?). My code basically says that if a light=less (because the hand will block light when petting the turtle), the turtle’s head will look left and right (my servo still doesn’t work, although I can use my hand to conduct the currents from the Microbit to the “2”…This does work).

The turtle includes a flat shell (I didn’t have time to work out the dimensions of a round shell). Two arms stick out of the middle body part. They can move due to a thin layer of solidified hot glue. The arms are two layers thick while the legs are only one layer thick. If the Microbit is standing up (logo up), the 5×5 display will show a smiley face with eyes that look left and right. If the head is pressed hard enough, one of the buttons would be pressed. This would make the turtle’s arms move up and down.

I began to design the turtle by carving out an oval (24′ by 12′ (I Think ‘ means inch)). Next, I designed the 1 layer arm (*4). The top shell was actually broken into eight pieces as I thought there wouldn’t be enough cardboard left (there was). The Head was the last part to be designed.