Question: Hi! how do the robots know what to do and how do they function?

Sabine Giron answered on 13 Nov 2019:

Hello!

The robots know exactly what to do because they have been programmed to do a specific set of actions.

A robot is basically formed of a brain (the controller) and muscles (different motors that move). You can also have robots that have eyes (if you add a camera) or even touch (if you add a sensor that detects force)!.
The controller by default is empty: it is the job of the robot programmer to add commands into it.
There are different ways to program a robot:
– you can type a code directly into the controller that gives commands to the different motors and that takes into account the sensors.
– you can also use an interface (kind of like a tablet) and program using already prepared commands
– and for some robots, you can actually handguide them to the positions you want them to move to and you can save the positions directly into your program!

It is always really rewarding and fun to see the robot move the way you programmed it to do 🙂