Your robot should have two large wheels, each driven by a motor that are centered under the mass of the robot. You may need additional, unpowered wheels for balance. You do not have to include batteries in your base, but you should include space for the controller board and for mounting sensors in front and in back. You are likely to decide to rebuild your robot at least once during this course, but you should try to come up with a lasting design. In order to test your robot base, use the battery packs included in your kit.

The major goals for this base are robustness and driving control. Your robot should be able to move straight as well as quickly turn to the left or right. The smaller the turning radius it has the better. You are welcome to try to come up with a more complex design than the two wheel base described above to achieve these goals.

To achieve robustness, follow some of the hints on Lego building provided in the reading packet. The traditional building technique of bricks atop bricks doesn't make for a very robust structure; be sure to cross-brace your structure. To test for robustness, you should be able to drive your base around for 15 minutes and sustain repeated mild collisions with walls without serious disintegration. Your base should feel solid, not flexible.

To achieve good driving control, make sure that the drive wheeels are even with each other and that the axles are well supported. Be sure that your gear assemblies don't have too much or too little play in them. You should gear down the motors to get a good balance between speed and torque. Faster robots are more exciting, but harder to control and apply less force. You're welcome to add nifty aesthetic elements, but only after your base is driving reliably.

This assignment will be graded as a team project, but you should write individual descriptions of what you did in your lab notebooks.