Our training calendar is now up and running. You can view details of our upcoming training courses and workshops online!

Effectual Education Training Workshop Calendar

A project made for a school client to demonstrate the principles and applications of pneumatics.

What are the advantages of Pneumatics over inserting a motor? There are many…

Some of the things that immediately comes to mind ->

• More compact and smaller design
• Fast action and response
• Use of single motor to generate power (with air pressure) instead of several motors each driving a single finger
• Compressor motor need not be continuously turned on. Pressure can be generate beforehand and generated pressure can last through several actuations of the pressure switch.

Interested in robotics but your school does not have a robotics club?

Would like to develop the interest in your kids but do not know where to start?

Join your workshop and courses at your neighborhood Community Clubs… Learn robotics in a fun way and also network with people sharing the same interest… Who knows, you may form a team to participate in Local and International Robotics Competition like the FIRST LEGO LEAGUE!

For details please visit http://one.pa.gov.sg

Note: Commencing of courses and workshops are dependent on the minimum attendees/participation rate. Please write to us if you wish for a course near you and we will work with the Community Club/Community Center in your neighborhood.

Effectual Devices introduces Robotics to the Community

Effectual Devices Fathers and Sons bonding through Robotics

About People’s Association.

Mission : To Build and To Bridge Communities in achieving One People, One Singapore

We achieve our mission through our network of 1,800 grassroots organisations, five Community Development Councils, the National Youth Council, National Community Leadership Institute, Outward Bound Singapore and the Social Development Service.

About onePA

onePA offers a one-stop access to all of PA’s courses, activities, facilities, interest groups and memberships.

Developed with you in mind, onePA recognises that every customer has unique preferences. onePA helps you better navigate through the many programmes that the PA offers, and helps you zoom in on those that interest you. The system also helps us develop better products to meet your needs.

In doing so, we can establish a long term one-to-one relationship with you and realise our mission of bringing people together through our events, activities and courses.

Children having fun learning about robots

If yes, we would like to discuss with you and having the opportunity to be part of our team. And yes, you should also be at least 21 years old Singapore resident! College degree/diploma and early childhood qualifications would help Work on partnership/freelance basis.

Our clients include public and private schools, childcare centers and community centers. Enjoy what you do while being paid! We use a fair profit sharing scheme with the bulk of the fees going to the trainer/instructor for having done a good job. Write to us at admin@effectualdevices.com and visit http://effectualeducation.com

Effectual Education is the education arm of Effectual Devices with focus on robotics, science and technology education. Our clients include Tertiary Institutions, MOE and private schools in Singapore. We also source and supply customized robotics parts, training and solutions for corporations and individuals. Effectual Devices LLP is a Singapore based robotics consultancy, education, electronics and educational products company. Effectual Devices commenced operations in 2008. We are staffed by well qualified professionals with extensive experience working with the top Multinational Hi-Tech companies.

We select our products and partners and consultants carefully to ensure our customers get only the best. Our partners are well known in their respective industry for delivering exceptional products and services.

As our website is undergoing continuous update and upgrade, please visit us regularly.

We welcome your input and feedback. Please visit our website at http://effectualeducation.com/

Write to us at admin@effectualdevices.com

Robotics Courses and Workshops

Teh Jun Hao

Thu Aug 11 2011 The Straits Times

18-year-old Teh Jun Hao built a 1.5m-long submersible aircraft carrier within a month, which got him admitted to the Singapore University of Technology and Design.

SINGAPORE – To enter his dream university, 18-year-old Teh Jun Hao did not just submit an application form on a few sheets of paper.

Instead, the former Meridien Junior College student built his varsity application – out of Lego bricks.

Mr Teh built a 1.5m-long submersible aircraft carrier – a design of which is not yet in existence- within a month, but he had been designing military ships in his spare time for several years.

Mr Teh’s construction skills as showcased in a video he made (view it on the next page) got him into the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD).

Since primary school, the ‘average student’ has had a keen interest in science and technology. Some of the 10,000 Lego pieces used to build his impressive-looking warship – with battery-operated moving parts – are five to six years old.

Mr Teh had wanted to apply to the university from year one in junior college. And he was encouraged to do so by his parents.

His father Teh Kai Chong, 55, is an auditor, and his mother Ma Ping Qian, 50, is an enrichment instructor.

Singapore’s fourth university is set to open its doors in April next year, but Mr Teh will only join two years from now, after completing his full-time national service.

According to the Straits Times, SUTD has no shortage of applicants just nine months before it opens its doors, and has admitted about 7 per cent of those who have applied.

The newest university will focus specifically on engineering and design, and offer a different model of university education from those currently available.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is helping SUTD build its curriculum from scratch, in its largest collaboration anywhere in the world.

The first batch of 500 students will start at an interim campus in Dover next year as its permanent campus at Changi will only open in 2014. It will have 4,000 undergraduate and 2,000 postgraduate students then.

The next SUTD open house is from Sept 30 to Oct 2 at the Dover campus, next to the ITE College West.

To find out more about LEGO robotics education, visit http://effectualeducation.com

To provide an enhanced experience for our students we have designed and created our own robot activity mat modeled after competition mats. My students had a great time and the activities designed around the mat kept them busy for hours. The PVC mat was able to handle all the abuse without any problems. At the end of the week, I just washed the mat and it is as good as new. I would not imagine any mat made out of paper would have made it though the week

You may order one at our online store.

This Rubic Cube solver by Hans Andersson shows the power of the NXT.

The Tilted Twister 2.0 Features Solves a standard Rubik’s cube.  There is no need to replace any color stickers on the cube. It can be built from a single LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0 set. It is completely stand-alone operation and there is no need to connect a computer or web cam.  It detects the colors using the LEGO Mindstorms color sensor Support for Herbert Kociemba’s Two-Phase Algorithm. The challenge was to build the robot using a single LEGO Mindstorms NXT-kit. And to make it completely independent, without need of being connected to a computer. The Lego Mindstorms NXT kit contains three servo motors and a set of sensors (touch, color and ultrasonic).

The author got the final design after a lot of experimenting  -

“If I tilted the whole robot, it would be possible for it to tilt the cube using only one motor, leaving the other two motors for twisting the cube and for positioning the color sensor. Thus Tilted Twister.

Color recognition

Even if the LEGO Mindstorms color sensor is very accurate, it is hard to distinguish between the red and the orange colors. The corners are no problem, there is redundancy in that it is possible to use the colors of two sides to determine the color of the third. The center cubies have even more redundancy. The only thing I had to consider was the Rubik’s logo on the white center cubie, which gives undefined color readings. The edge pieces are hardest to resolve. For example to determine whether an instance of a cubie is red/blue or orange/blue. By converting RGB values to hue and saturation and comparing them (orange has a somewhat higher hue/saturation compared to red) it is possible to resolve even these.

Calculating a solution

I wanted the robot to be completely independent, without the need to connect to a computer. This puts some demands on the program. Of the size of the program and memory usage. And not least of performance. The performance of NXT’s processor is quite sufficient for typical robot-tasks. But when it comes to heavy calculations it is significantly slower than an ordinary computer. This rules out heuristic-algorithms (which generates near optimum solutions, with approximately 20 face turns). Instead I tried to find a method to solve the cube, whith limited number of algorithms but that still would generate a solution with not too many moves. First I implemented a quite simple layer by layer algorithm. This gave a solution with an average of almost 100 face turns. I have then implemented a corners-first method which generates a significantly shorter solution. The average is about 60 face turns (which I think is pretty good for a general solution). As a matter of fact, the program calculates three solutions with different starting points, and picks the shortest.

Herbert Kociemba’s Two-Phase algorithm

To get an even quicker solve, it is possible to connect Tilted Twister to a computer via Bluetooth to calculate a shorter solution. I have used Herbert Kociemba’s fantastic Two-Phase algorithm which I use in a Java Application. This produces a solution of typically 21 face turns in just a second.”

Performance Stand-alone:

Scanning the cube: 45 seconds

Calculating a solution: 20 – 40 seconds

Executing the moves: 1 – 5 minutes Average total time: 6 minutes

Connected to computer:

Scanning the cube: 45 seconds

Calculating a solution: 1 second

Executing the moves: 1 – 2 minutes

Average total time: 2.5 minutes

Video of the robot in action:

More info and building instructions: http://tiltedtwister.com

LEGO Mindstorms Programmable Brick

Welcome to this multimedia tutorial for the NXT-G graphical language of the LEGO® Mindstorms® NXT system.

This tutorial is divided into two sections selected on the left. The “Essentials” are things every NXT programmer should know. Some of these movies have exercises directly under them. It’s important to do these exercises, not just assume you “get it.” The biggest reason why people have problems using the NXT-G language is not applying through hands-on programming what they have just learned.

The “Advanced” section is for reference purposes. When you need one of NXT-G’s advanced functions, check it out.

This tutorial requires Shockwave to play the movies. If it’s not installed on this machine you can download the free player here. Also, check out the “Browser Settings” section if you are having problems with your browser constantly blocking this content.

THE LEGO LOGO, MINDSTORMS AND THE MINDSTORMS LOGO ARE TRADEMARKS OF THE LEGO GROUP, WHICH DID NOT CREATE AND DOES NOT SPONSOR OR ENDORSE THIS TUTORIAL

Essentials

Introduction

Editor_Intro

Move_Blocks

Move_Exercise

Loops

Loop_Exercise

Wait

Wait_Exercise

Light_Sensor

Light_Exercise

Viewing_Sensors

(Download Light View Program)

Switches

Switch_Exercise

Display_blocks

My_Blocks

Cascade

Tasks

Data_Hubs

My_Blocks_Advanced

Variables

About the NXT Tutorial Version 1.16

This NXT Tutorial was developed by Dale Yocum, Head Robotics Coach at Catlin Gabel School in Portland, Oregon. The exercise animations are provided courtesy of Skye Sweeney (aka FLL-Freak). This version of the tutorial may be freely distributed.