St Mary's Calne
Willow, Lily and Annabel of the LVI (Year 12) have been working on a number of electronics projects this term as part of Mr Curran’s Robotics and Programming club on Monday evenings in Helen Wright House.
Probably the most ambitious so far involved the construction, programming and remote controlling of a Monsterborg Raspberry Pi based robot. The construction process comprised a high level of complexity, perseverance and skills. The girls built the robot from component level up, using a Raspberry Pi4 as the control hub for the project. The 300 rpm 37mm motors and 4 inch diameter wheels made for a very powerful machine, and the group got the device working perfectly. Once built, they used the linux based operating system and python scripting to allow control of movement, and even used SSH and the school wifi connection to remote control the robot via a mounted live video cam to drive around the boarding house! They were even able to reprogramme a games console controller to remote steer the device. The project proved an excellent opportunity to develop the girls’ programming, engineering and electronics skills. Parents - do keep an eye on the E-Lily for a report on the group’s second major project, an Artificial Intelligence facial recognition programme.