Qfix robot kits are an education tool for teaching

robotics Robotics is an interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary branch of computer science and engineering. Robotics involves design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is to design machines that can help and assist human ...

. They are used in

school A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compu ...

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

s and

mechatronics Mechatronics engineering also called mechatronics, is an interdisciplinary branch of engineering that focuses on the integration of mechanical, electrical and electronic engineering systems, and also includes a combination of robotics, electronics, ...

training in companies. The robot kits are also used by hobby robot builders. The qfix kits are often found in the

RoboCup Junior RoboCup Junior (RCJ), sometimes stylised RobocupJunior, is a division of RoboCup, a not-for-profit robotics organisation. It focuses on education and aims to introduce the larger goals of the RoboCup project (creating robots) to primary and second ...

competition where

soccer robot A soccer robot is a specialized autonomous robot and mobile robot that is used to play variants of soccer. The main organised competitions are RoboCup or FIRA tournaments played each year. The RoboCup contest currently has a number of soccer lea ...

s are built of the kit's components.

Mechanics

Lego mindstorms Lego Mindstorms is a hardware and software structure which develops programmable robots based on Lego building blocks. Each version includes computer Lego bricks, a set of modular sensors and motors, and Lego parts from the Technic line to ...

, it is a

robot kit A robot kit is a special construction kit for building robots, especially autonomous mobile robots. Toy robot kits are also supplied by several companies. They are mostly made of plastics elements like Lego Mindstorms, rero Reconfigurable Rob ...

consisting of mechanical parts, a controller, different

sensors A sensor is a device that produces an output signal for the purpose of sensing a physical phenomenon. In the broadest definition, a sensor is a device, module, machine, or subsystem that detects events or changes in its environment and sends ...

and

actuators An actuator is a component of a machine that is responsible for moving and controlling a mechanism or system, for example by opening a valve. In simple terms, it is a "mover". An actuator requires a control device (controlled by control signal) ...

, and a software environment to program the constructed robot. Unlike Lego, in qfix the mechanical parts are made of aluminium. Mechanical elements include bars and plates, mounts for motors and sensors, axes and wheels.

Electronics

The qfix controller boards consist of an

Atmel Atmel Corporation was a creator and manufacturer of semiconductors before being subsumed by Microchip Technology in 2016. Atmel was founded in 1984. The company focused on embedded systems built around microcontrollers. Its products included mi ...

AVR controller plus motor drivers, analog and digital input ports, LEDs, buttons, and an

I²C I2C (Inter-Integrated Circuit, ), alternatively known as I2C or IIC, is a synchronous, multi-controller/multi-target (master/slave), packet switched, single-ended, serial communication bus invented in 1982 by Philips Semiconductors. It is w ...

bus. The bus is used to connect further PCBs like LCD display, stronger motor drivers or special sensors.

Software

The qfix kits come with the free C++ environment WinAVR for Atmel AVR controllers. Additionally, there is a C++ class library handling all qfix controller board functionalities. Programs can be downloaded to the controller boards via parallel or

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply ( interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers. A broa ...

link using the avrdude tool. Graphical programming is also supported by using qfix

GRAPE A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry (botany), berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non-Climacteric (botany), climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of ...

(graphical programming environment). With this software, first a flowchart is designed and then the behavior of all flowchart elements is defined.

External links

RoboCup Junior

qfix robotics homepage

qfix Grape
Educational toys Robot kits Electronic toys Soccer robots {{Toy-stub