Today we used what we learned yesterday about construction and friction in our projects. Campers constructed a "driving base" unit using the LEGO NXT "intelligent brick" as the basis for the robotic vehicle. This sophisticated system emphasizes the programming aspects of robotics and offers a wide variety of engineering and modeling possibilities. The first challenge, "Walk the Dog," required the campers to program their unit to move forward from one box into another. The challenges continued and increased in difficulty. "Walk the Dog Around the Corner" and "Walk the Dog Back Home" further enabled campers to use their programming skills to make the robotic vehicle turn right and left as well as travel in reverse. The most difficult of this series, "Walk the Dog Around the Block," challenged students to program their robots to travel around a predetermined area. After a short break, campers came back to conquer even more difficult challenges with "Impossible Curve" and "Figure Eight." These allowed them to program their robots to maneuver arcs and curves successfully.

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