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Lesson · Grade 6 · Applied Design, Skills and Technologies

Sense, think, act: the three parts of a robot

  • Grade 6
  • Applied Design, Skills and Technologies
  • 1 min 16 s
  • British Columbia
  • BC6-AD-32

A small wheeled robot is labelled part by part: its sensors gather information, its control system runs a program to decide, and its effectors (wheels and a gripper arm) act. Each part matches one of three Sense, Think and Act cards. The robot then senses a wall 20 cm ahead, follows the rule "if closer than 30 cm, back away" and reverses, repeating the loop, and a simple fan, which can act but cannot sense or think, shows that a machine that does all three on its own is usually called a robot.

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In one sentence

The question this lesson answers

What makes a machine a robot?

A robot does three jobs: it senses, it thinks and it acts.

Transcript

What the lesson says

What makes a machine a robot?

A robot does three jobs: it senses, it thinks and it acts.

Sensors gather information about the world around the robot.

Here, a distance sensor measures how far away things are, and a touch sensor feels bumps.

The control system is a small computer that runs a program to decide what to do.

Effectors are the parts that act, like the wheels and the gripper arm.

As the robot drives forward, its distance sensor finds a wall 20 centimetres ahead.

Its program says: if something is closer than 30 centimetres, back away.

So the wheels turn backwards, and the robot backs away from the wall.

Then it senses again, so the three steps repeat over and over.

A simple fan can act, but it cannot sense or think.

A machine that can sense, think and act on its own is usually called a robot.

Sensors sense, the control system thinks, and effectors act.

Curriculum

Where this fits

British Columbia, Grade 6

Applied Design, Skills and Technologies, Robotics: main components of robots: sensors, control systems, and effectorsBC6-AD-32

British Columbia, Grade 7

Applied Design, Skills and Technologies, Robotics: main components of robots: sensors, control systems, and effectorsBC7-AD-29

This lesson is also listed in Grade 7.

The outcomes and strands follow the British Columbia curriculum.

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