ROBOTICS TRACK / LEVEL 02
Make an Arduino run a complete system with explicit rules, responsive timing, memory, reusable code, and interfaces that recover from incorrect input.
The learning plan is approved, but the exact circuits, components, timings, and family workflow still require physical validation. This page explains the intended course; lessons are not yet available, and this is not a buy-now shopping guide.
Students learn to combine sensors, rules, time, memory, and feedback. The final system should explain decisions through Serial evidence, remain responsive while several jobs run, and recover from incorrect user actions.
INPUT_PULLUP.if/else, functions, arrays, and loops with reminders.PREREQUISITE CLARITY
Students do not need prior formal logic instruction. Truth tables, Boolean values, logical combinations, zero-based indexes, and simple binary place value are introduced or reactivated inside the level.
The level develops parameterized functions, data-driven patterns, a shift register, useful Serial logging, nonblocking millis() schedules, named states, keypad validation, and recovery behavior.
PLANNED HARDWARE
Genuine Arduino Uno R3, USB data cable, jumper wires, buttons, passive piezo, desktop Arduino IDE, and maker notebook. A larger breadboard is planned for the integrated console.
74HC08 AND, 74HC32 OR, and 74HC04 NOT gate ICs; a 74HC595 shift register; 3×4 membrane keypad; eight LEDs; current-limiting and input resistors; and one 0.1 µF decoupling capacitor per powered IC.
Planning estimate: $20–$45 incremental before tax and shipping. Exact parts have been purchased for validation, but no public purchase recommendation is final until they pass the physical preflight and course circuits.
PLANNED LEARNING ARC
Use two buttons to predict and test every possible logical combination.
Learn IC orientation, power, defined inputs, decoupling, and physical truth-table testing.
Combine an arm condition, trigger, and exception into explicit compound rules.
Use parameters, return values, and local variables to make behavior easier to test.
Store output patterns as data instead of repeating nearly identical statements.
Connect bits and binary patterns to a fully specified shift-register circuit.
Record inputs, decisions, time, and state so the system can explain what happened.
Replace blocking waits with schedules that let inputs and outputs remain responsive.
Model system behavior with a state diagram, enum, and switch.
Accept a sequence, communicate progress, reject mistakes, and return to a useful state.
Bring inputs, outputs, rules, timing, state, and diagnostics together through subsystem tests.
Observe an unaided user, make one evidence-based improvement, and defend the final design.
CAPSTONE + READINESS
The planned mission-control or escape-room console uses at least three meaningful input roles, three output roles across two modalities, four named states, nonblocking timing, reusable functions, useful diagnostics, and recovery from an incorrect action.
Students should be able to complete a truth table, write a function with a parameter, use an array and loop, keep inputs responsive during two schedules, explain a state diagram, and use Serial evidence to locate a fault.