Over the past few weeks, our Form II girls have been designing and programming robots in Natural Sciences for their examination project. They were given a circuit board and a compiler, two motors and a USB cable.

From this they had to design the robot chassis and casing, and imagine a function for their robot. Their brief then asked them to programme the robot to manoeuvre in a one-metre-square path.

This project has been a year in the making. Mrs Huysamer and myself had approached a robotics company and we worked together to create a kit that would allow the girls to design their own robots, using identical working parts. The electronic components and programme were custom-made for us by Ryonic Robotics.

The girls have even had to create their own wheels to attach to the motors, and solve multiple problems, such as maintaining a frictionless attachment and realising that the wheel circumferences cause different drive distances. They found the project challenging, and each pair of girls experienced some failures. The project, however, ended successfully.

Melanie Blair

HoD Physical and Natural Sciences