Video Credit: Community Science Workshop Network
Instead of buying an expensive robot for your child, why don’t you just ask him or her to join you as you make your own home-made robot? Here is another fun experiment that uses battery as its main source of power. Let us make a “dancing” minibot using materials that may be acquired easily.
What you will need:
- 1 Motor
- 4 Jumbo Popsicle sticks
- 1.5 inches long plastic dowel
- 2 Brass fasteners
- 1 Paperclip
- 1 9-volt battery
- 3 Electrical wires (2 black and 1 red)
- 1 Rectangular cardboard
- Electrical tape
- Scissors
- Glue gun
- Drill with a 5/64 drill bit
- Kitchen Knife
What to do:
- Cut a small vertical slit on all four corners of your rectangular cardboard.
- Place your paperclip at the mid-bottom part of the cardboard. Create 2 holes on the insides of the clip.
- Get your glue gun and stick the motor on the mid-upper portion of your cardboard, exactly opposite of your paperclip.
- Get your 2 black electrical wires. Both ends should be connected to your motor.
- Insert the brass fastener in each hole you have created near your paperclip. The right brass fastener should secure the clip; however, it must be able to move freely so try moving it in a circular motion to create enough space around. This will serve as the switch of your dancing minibot. It will be attached to the other brass fastener so that electricity will flow.
- Get your red electrical wire and attach it to the right brass fastener with the paper clip.
- Get one end of the black electrical wire and connect it to the left brass fastener.
- Place your 9-volt battery on the middle of the cardboard and secure it with electrical tape.
- Attach the red wire to the polarized snap or the circle-shaped connector of the battery.
- Get the other end of the black wire attached to the motor and attach it to the rectangular prism shaped-connector of the battery.
- Secure the wiring using electrical tape once again. Make sure that everything is tightly attached to your battery.
- Get your drill and create a hole on the utmost end of your plastic dowel. The farther, the better as it will need to rotate 360o once the electricity flows through the dancing minibot. A dowel is a cylindrical rod made of metal, wood or plastic. It is usually used to secure furniture or hanging items such as clothes, curtains, and so on. For this experiment, we prefer to use a plastic dowel as it is the lightest.
- Slightly push the dowel at the end part of your motor. Secure it using your glue gun.
- Turn your cardboard upside down and insert the jumbo Popsicle sticks in the slits. Secure them using a glue gun. Bend all ends as they will serve as the “feet” of your dancing minibot.
- To turn the dancing minibot on, hook the paperclip to the other brass fastener where the black wire is connected.
The dancing minibot should hop around once the electricity flows. The dowel will serve as a propeller so the farther the hole is, the faster the minibot will hop around. If you wish to stop it, you just only need to disconnect or unhook the paperclip on one of the brass fasteners.
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