So I have this crazy idea in my head that if I casually build a robot with Emily from time to time she will think that this is common place. I want her to think of robotics as something you can just do if you ever have a desire or need to do so. With that thought in mind, I purchased a robotics kit from Velleman Inc. a while back. I had been collecting dust until this past weekend when Emily and I assembled it.First things first, every mad scientist must have their lab. Emily and I created a nice little area in the basement where we could create our unholy creation. I located my soldering iron and old spool of solder from the day of the VAP project and we went to town.

The first step was to show Emily all the different parts that came in the kit. I explained the board to her, and we categorized our resisters, transistors, switches, wires, LEDs and LDRs into separate piles for quick access. Next we grabbed our helping hands, warmed up the soldering iron and put metal to metal.

To be fair, I didn’t let Emily try her hand at the saudering iron. She is way to small yet, but she sat very intersted for the 40 minute build as we asembled our creation. Our robot didn’t require much more than the skill set required to glue a model airplane together. Each time we moved onto the next item I would show Emily a picture of it, she would find it in the piles for me. I would then tell her what position it need to be installed. For example, I would tell her to find a resistor and then the location R1 on the board. The board was very well marked and Emily was able to find most of the positions with little trouble.

After about 40 minutes Emily and I completed the project. We scurried up stairs cackling out our evil mad scientist laughs to see if our creation had any life in it. I was SHOCKED and AMAZED when I turned it on and it worked. Yea! Our Running Microbug has limited brain functionality. It’s purpose in life is to run to the brightest light source. It’s kind of an anti-cockroach. However, our little bug is so hopped up on speed when you cut him loose that you would need a room the size of a basketball court to really appreciate his ability to hone in on the brightest light source. However, if you turn the lights on and off in the room you can see quite clearly how he will stop in darkness and run in bright light.

All in all this was a great project and I think Emily really enjoyed building the little bug. I hope that this will be the first of several robots that Emily and I build together. I can’t wait to learn more about the interesting field of robotics where I hope that someday I can design the robot rather than just build a kit.