True Robotics Made Simple with fischertechnik

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Part One: The Control Center

As you’ve heard us mention before, the fischertechnik construction system is widely used in schools for teaching all sorts of STEM Education (i.e. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) concepts, from the principles of Dynamics and Statics, to the fundamentals of electronics, to how renewable energy is created and used. But one of the most prominent uses of fischertechnik is in the area of Mechatronics, aka Robotics and Programming.

There are two major reasons why fischertechnik has been so widely adopted by schools for teaching robotics.

  1. One is that although there are many big name manufacturers who currently claim to offer products for teaching robotics, many of these are not in fact true robotics, but instead merely joy stick controlled models that don’t differ fundamentally from the radio controlled car models many of us played with as children. fischertechnik offers students an introduction to true robotics by not only allowing them to build a functional robotic model, but also to create a program for the robot to execute, and then to download that program into the robots control interface so that depending on the stimuli encountered, the robot can act and react independently based on this  programming.
  2. The second major reason is, in a word, simplicity.  fischertechnik makes the whole process of programming and controlling robots easy for students to grasp and understand.

To give you a better idea of just how simple fischertechnik makes this process, I’m going to give you a brief overview of the central nervous system of the fischertechnik robots, starting with the software and the interface which control the robots. fischertechnik has been combining their unique construction system with methods for programming and controlling the models you build since way back in the eighties. Today this process has become even easier with the latest release of ROBO Pro software. ROBO Pro allows you to quickly and almost effortlessly begin programming by using a flow chart like system made up of little graphic icons representing the various functions you want your robot to execute. Just examine a few of the sample programs for each of the current fischertechnik models which come included with the software, and soon enough you’ll be creating your own programs. Of course, you’ll want to make sure the program you’ve designed works properly before you go too far, so ROBO Pro allows you to test out that program right on your computer first, and if there are any errors or problems you need to address, you’ll see exactly where these are occurring  right on your screen.

Once you’ve determined everything is working smoothly, you simply need to download your programs into the special fischertechnik interface called the ROBO TX Controller. The ROBO TX Controller is much more powerful than any previous fischertechnik interface, more compact, has more inputs for sensors, lights and motors than before, and it also allows for easy downloading of programs via a simple USB connection to your computer. You can even control your models right from your computer desktop if you wish, using the ROBO TX Controller’s Bluetooth capability.

The ROBO Pro software and the ROBO TX Controller make up the major part of every fischertechnik robot’s central nervous system, the brain so to speak, but just like the central nervous system found in our bodies, they require inputs that give it information on the world around them, and ways to react to that information. Robots do this with the aid of actuators and sensors.  We will learn about how sensors and actuators work in my next blog posting. Meanwhile, I’m going to leave you today with an interesting video showing a model constructed of fischertechnik solving a randomly scrambled Rubic’s Cube:

As always, if you have any questions or comments about anything fischertechnik related, feel free to email me at [email protected].

Author: Lance Zurek

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