Smart Battery Pack
Summer 2022 - WIP
During my summer internship at the Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO), I was challenged to design a robot inspired by the LEGO Education SPIKE Prime kit. The goal of my project was to envision and prototype ways to lower the barrier of entry of using SPIKE Prime in classrooms.
Design Process
I began my Ideation by playing with the existing LEGO Education kits, and noting which features could make teachers hesitant to implement them. I decided to focus on enabling control without connecting to a computer or learning to program. I wanted to implement sensor inputs that could be added gradually to increase the complexity of the robot and hardware.
Modular Prototype: Level 1
I made a prototype of my own robot kit that started very simple: just a pack of AA batteries and 2 simple DC motors. I designed and printed LEGO compatible casings for this hardware using Onshape. While a little inconvenient to use due to its lack of control, this stage demonstrates how simple a robotics kit can start, using inexpensive components and no connectivity. Students could use this simple starter pack to make cars, windmills, high-five machines, etc.
Modular Prototype: Level 2
To introduce more control to the student, I made a few modules that could be snapped on to the casing of the battery. These included a microcontroller, an H-bridge motor driver, a power supply, and an I2C joystick. Adding these modules and connecting them together allowed me to drive the robot with the joystick. Unlike SPIKE which requires computer connectivity to drive a car robot, this version emphasizes hardware and adds real-time control.
