In Game Application

•  Open-ended projects, robotics

Continuous vs Positional

A servo is a type of motor that is often used in robotics and automation because it can be controlled very precisely. They come in different sizes, but what we usually have here at the Academy are microservos. They’re small, so they don’t have a lot of strength (they can’t be used to pick up heavy things or control big objects) but work great with the micro:bit.

There are two types of microservos: positional and continuous rotation. 

1. Positional ones can only move 180 degrees (half a rotation), but you can tell it exactly what angle you want it to go to. That’s useful for things like moving a robot arm to a specific position.

2. Continuous ones can go all the way around. You can’t tell them to stop or go to a particular angle, but you can control the speed and which direction they go. They’re useful for things like making a robot move with wheels or winding a pulley.

[Demo with the Familiar?]

Facilitator guides the students through “ Use a Continuous Rotation Servo” Project:

Students should try attaching materials to the servo arm and trying different things with the code for different effects. Some ideas for inspiration:

1. Adding a cardboard or paper arm or arrow to a servo

2. Adding a wheel to a servo

3. Using various inputs to trigger servo movement

4. Tying a particular input that moves the servo autonomously — i.e., using the loudness to dictate the servo angle for a karaoke effect, or controlling the servo angle based on the orientation of the micro:bit