The October 24th DPRG monthly meeting will offer a workshop where participants will receive training and hands-on experience using AI to program a Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller. There will be a mystery Robot Motion Challenge.
The workshop will begin at 10am, Saturday 10/24 in the Dallas Makerspace North Lobby classroom, 1825 Monetary Lane, Carrollton. Pizza lunch will be provided at Noon, and the workshop will end before 2pm.
The workshop will be available to remote participants via Google Meet at https://meet.google.com/mwm-imzg-rss.
Hardware will be provided to 10 people, with paid-up DPRG members given priority. They will have robot access and hands-on help. This is a chance to become a new DPRG member.
RSVP to vice-president@dprg.org and you will be confirmed by 10/21. There is no cost.
You will need to bring your own laptop, with Arduino IDE and RPi Pico support pre-loaded. All other hardware will be provided for shared use and will be retained by the DPRG. You will need working Wi-Fi on your laptop. We will be using a free online AI (Google Gemini) to assist.
This is NOT a “learn to write software” class. It is about How to use AI to Write Robot Software that makes Hardware Move.
Each participant will develop and test using an RPi Pico mounted on a proto board with LEDs that indicate drive motor power. The proto board can then be plugged into a shared robot for Robot-Motion testing. Remote participants who have built their own hardware may be able to participate in The Challenge.
Knowledge Prerequisite: Ideally some coding knowledge, preferably Arduino based c++, and be familiar with programming constructs like functions, loops and if() statements.
Laptop Requirements:
- Windows 10 or newer, Linux, or macOS Monterey or newer
- Wi-Fi and one USB Connection, type A (the big rectangular USB plug). If you have a Mac or modern laptop that only has USB-C, bring an adapter to USB-A
Preparation (Required – READ CAREFULLY)
- Install Arduino IDE v2 and RPi Pico software beforehand using instructions here: https://tinyurl.com/PicoAiBotSwInstall
- Remote participants can build the required hardware using instructions here: https://tinyurl.com/PicoAiBotHwBuild
- You will not be able to load the required software during the workshop – there isn’t sufficient Wi-Fi bandwidth at Dallas Makerspace.
WORKSHOP CONTENT
Theory:
- Workflow: AI Prompt Engineering -> hardware
- Robot + RPi Pico overview
- PWM and motor speed control
Hands-on:
- Load and run an example sketch on the RPi Pico – confirm LED operation
- Ask AI to write code. Run the code on the RPi Pico
- Design a solution to “The Challenge” and ask AI to write code that implements your design
- Test the code on the RPi Pico. If it works, test it on the robot. If it doesn’t, ask AI to help you debug it.