How to Build a Simple Robot for Kids

Bugs use antennae to navigate their world...why shouldn't your robot?

Building a simple robot with a child is a great way to teach them a wide variety of useful and entertaining skills, like electronics and creative thinking. Luckily, the vogue of "junkbots," or robots created from repurposed or basic materials, gives you an opportunity to build an obstacle-avoiding beetle robot completely from scratch with your kid. You'll need some basic tools, but the entire project can be completed in a well-spent half hour.

Things You'll Need

• 3.2 of small-gauge electric wire
• Wire cutter/stripper
• Soldering iron and 2 percent silver solder
• 1.5-volt motors, 2 each
• 2 sub-miniature lever SPDT switches
• 1 AAA battery holder
• Glue gun
• Large paperclip
• Wooden necklace pearl
• 2 small paperclips
• AAA batteries

Instructions

1. Cut the wire into 6-centimeter pieces, 13 total. Strip about a 1/4 inch of insulation from both ends of each one.

2. Attach a separate wire to each of the six switch terminals (three per switch) and each of the four motor terminals (two per motor). Solder these connections thoroughly.

3. Locate the negative terminal on the non-wired end of the battery pack and solder another short length of wire away from that terminal.

4. Place the battery holder face-down with the wires extending out the top. Glue the switches down in a "V" formation at the top of the battery holder with their activators facing inward.

5. Glue the motors to the outer sides of the battery holder at a downward angle, beneath the switches, so that the battery holder is held up off the ground slightly by the motors' shafts.

6. Untwist the paper clip and bend it into a long, skinny "U" shape with the pearl strung in the middle. Hot-glue this contraption to the back, dragging end of the battery holder to provide a rolling support.

7. Wire the switches to activate the motor opposite them on the battery holder; the right switch should deactivate the left motor and vice versa. Solder a short length of wire between the motors' positive terminals.

8. Unbend the small paperclips and attach them to the activators of the switches, arcing outward like antennae. Inserting the batteries will send your robot skittering away, avoiding objects that collide with its antennae.

References

• GoRobotics: How to Build a Simple Beetle Robot