Suggestion pls for some simple project for school?

[MarcoItaly]

We have the Mindstorm Ev3 kit. My son, 14 y old, came out with the idea to make his final small thesis for the school on industry and automation and, as a part of it, he  would like to build some simple mindstorm automation example . Any suggestions ? We have 1,5 month of time. I was thinking on  a very basic  2d plotter? (Probably with 2 rack and pinions to move the 2 axis?)  Where can we find ideas? 

Edited April 5, 2021 by MarcoItaly

[Scoar Sonander]

Hm. Hard to say. So basically just a robot on a 2 track base? 

I am not a total expert on Mindstorms, but if you had any spare linear actuators you could try to make a robot arm. Like the ones they use in car factories. 

[Mr Jos]

What EV3 kit do you have? The education (comes with rechargeable battery) or the home edition? They have different sensors so it would be good to know what you have. Also do you have any additional Lego/other sets that can be used for parts to make the project?

 

Some suggestions for base kits only;

Home Edition:

https://rebrickable.com/sets/31313-1/mindstorms-ev3/#alt_builds

Educational Edition:

https://rebrickable.com/sets/45544-1/ev3-core-set/#alt_builds

Industry/Factory examples;

With more parts and only 1 EV3 brick you can make some kind of warehouse crane, you need to have a different supply then in my video (like small bricks coming to start position by gravity, take them with the crane/robot arm and drop them off on a set/random position), but this video is just to show a industry example (the crane uses 1 brick, the conveyors 2bricks).

Another industry project using 1 brick and few 'normal motors remote controlled' to represent a sheet metal perforating machine.

If your son has some extra parts and good imagination he could try to think about any industrial machine and try to make it. First point is how many motors do I have, and how many do I need for what I want to make, if more are needed, find something different or simplify the working.

[MarcoItaly]

Thanks.

He has the ev3 box with the parts that can be used to build 3 or 4 different robots. Below the image of the box.

The examples you showed are very nice but too complex for the time he has. I would have no problem to buy some more parts from lego shop but i was thinking to some simple robotic application. I found this one, but I think it is not for ev3, but i guess it is adaptable:https://www.nxtprograms.com/robot_arm/steps.html

[MarcoItaly]

A 2d plotter would be really cool because my son could have some real output and this could be also a nice eyecatcher for the teachers and would probably also involve some more programming to make Mindstorm to draw some lines. I  saw some examples of Mindstorm writing/drawing machines in youtube but they look pretty sophisticated for a beginner.

Does anybody have any idea for a semplified version ? 

Thanks for any suggestions..the final school test is getting close 😅

[Coder Shah]

Maybe this one?

Instructions and program here:

http://ricquin.net/mindstormsbonusmodels/DemoModel/08_BANNER_PRINT3R.ev3

 

 

 

[Mr Jos]

If you have just that set you can see the first link I posted in my previous post,

You have to scroll down to see the alternative builds and then click on one of them to see the detailed information about them.

https://rebrickable.com/sets/31313-1/mindstorms-ev3/#alt_builds

There are some plotters, drawing machines etc. Some instructions are free and have the program aswell, try to look at them for inspiration, but don't go for a 100% copy offcourse as it's still a school project to show what he can do.

 

[MarcoItaly]

Thanks Mr Jos, Coder,

For sure very inspirational and very good starting points to invent/add new solutions!