Since its establishment, the ELECFREAKS R&D team has been committed to launching maker education products that are easy to teach, learn, and use. In 2019, we found the Cutebot smart car kit. It has won the love of thousands of students and teachers with its compact size, rich peripheral interfaces, and beautiful appearance, and has allowed more students to get into the hardware programming world. At the same time, we carefully listened and considered the feedback from users: rechargeable batteries are needed and external structural parts can be connected. Therefore, soon we launched the Cutebot smart car lithium battery expansion pack, which greatly facilitates students and teachers to use it repeatedly over a long period of time and add personalized appearance structures, while also saving them the cost of teaching aids.

However, we are not satisfied with this.

We hope that the next generation of Cutebot smart cars can meet the growing needs of users: more powerful performance, more precise angle control, and richer peripheral interfaces! Therefore, we started to develop the newly upgraded Cutebot smart car with the end in mind. The Cutebot Pro smart car kit you are looking at now is the result of the hard work and unremitting efforts of the ENF team. It also uses a micro:bit as the main control board. Whether you are a novice maker who is new to hardware programming or an experienced maker master, you can transition to programming the Cutebot Pro smart car without any barriers. Precise coding motors, powerful power performance, and long-lasting battery support allow your whims to be perfectly presented in the real world; rich peripheral interfaces, as always artistic appearance, can turn your works into functions The perfect combination with art. The Cutebot Pro smart car in front of you can not only accurately control the distance traveled, but also perfectly rotate it at a specified angle. Under your professional control, it can make more amazing moves.

The EF Exploration Future Team (ELECFREAKS Technology Competition Team) designed a robot multi-task application competition based on such a smart car with powerful power, precise control, and long endurance – the “Explore the Future” Interstellar Chariot Challenge. The competition covers mechanical structure construction, intelligent open-source hardware research, artificial intelligence algorithm programming, and other knowledge contents. The competition is divided into two stages: remote control and autonomous line patrol. Participants are required to build their own robots and complete specific tasks on the field during the competition. Finally, the results will be ranked through scoring and timing.

The tasks of the EF Star Chariot Challenge are designed to be simple and easy to understand, aiming to lower the threshold for young people to participate in artificial intelligence robot competitions so that more students can participate. The picture above is a competition map designed by our design team according to the competition rules. The left part is the manual remote control stage. Players need to use the remote control handle to collect the blocks in the colored blocks into the middle block. The area on the right is the automatic line patrol stage of the interstellar combat vehicle. The interstellar combat strategy needs to transport the blocks just collected to the large block on the far right. You can see that we have designed some small elements on the map. Red represents thermal energy, yellow represents light energy, green represents biological energy, and blue represents electrical energy. Teenagers will learn how to program robots and understand and perform various tasks through specific scenarios in a fun way.

Competition Features:

1) Line following algorithm

Artificial intelligence algorithms and applications are mainly reflected in the application of PID line patrol. Students control the PID algorithm on the four-line patrol sensors according to their own knowledge level so that the car can reach the finish line more stably and quickly during route racing. Through its own encoded motor, the Star Chariot can easily control the forward distance of the car, allowing it to drive in a perfectly straight line and achieve more precise turning angle control. At the same time, four line-following sensors enable it to identify intersections and more complex routes.

2) Autonomous control

In the manual stage, players need to use the remote control handle to control the robot and complete specific tasks. While training players’ physical coordination, judgment, and practical abilities, it also enhances the viewing, fun, and experience of the game.

3) Unlimited creativity

The Star Chariot has four onboard line-following sensors, encoding motors, LED headlights, rainbow lights, and ultrasonic sensors. It is highly integrated and has expanded numerous peripheral interfaces and positioning holes for building block structural parts. It is compatible with Lego building blocks and can also use copper pillars, screws, and other parts greatly facilitating the realization of ideas.

Breaking the rules and loving creation are the common labels of thousands of makers. We welcome more teachers and maker players to join us in using cutebot pro to play more tricks and create more creativity!