Session 6 — Line Tracking and Sumo

Opening concept: Robots can follow rules they never had to be taught, if we program those rules in.

Physical activity: PL-7 (Human Line Follower) — tape a winding path, students follow the “keep tape under left foot” rule. Walk a curve, then a sharp angle. Notice the overshoot on sharp corners. Then scan the Edison line-tracking barcode and look for the same behavior.

Activity:

• Scan the line-tracking barcode. Watch Edison follow a black line.
• Draw different line patterns (curves, sharp angles) and test them. Does Edison handle all shapes the same?
• Sumo: scan sumo barcode. Two Edisons on a circular EdMat. Last one in the circle wins.
• Tournament: 3 rounds of sumo

Engineering connection: What makes a good sumo robot? Is it something we can change? (Edison’s programming is fixed here — this is a setup/strategy problem)

Materials: Black tape or line track mat, EdMat, complete barcode list