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Module 1 · Learning to Drive

Lesson 0 · What Is a Robot? — Knowledge Checks

Name Date

  1. Which device from the lineup does the 1979 'reprogrammable manipulator' definition clearly leave out, even though almost everyone agrees it's a robot?

    1. A.The towel-folding robot — it has arms
    2. B.The Mars rover — it drives and explores, but it isn't a manipulator arm
    3. C.The RC airplane
    4. D.The canister vacuum

    Answer Why?

  2. Using sense–think–act, why isn't the RC airplane a robot?

    1. A.It can't fly high enough
    2. B.The human does the sensing and thinking — the plane only acts
    3. C.It has no motor
    4. D.It isn't reprogrammable

    Answer Why?

  3. Why can't NASA fly a Mars rover the way you'd fly the RC airplane?

    1. A.Mars has no radio
    2. B.The radio delay is minutes each way, so the rover must sense the ground and decide for itself
    3. C.Rovers have no motors
    4. D.It could — they just prefer not to

    Answer Why?

  4. A washing machine senses the load, follows cycle logic, and spins on its own. Under sense–think–act, what's the honest answer?

    1. A.Definitely not a robot — it doesn't move around
    2. B.It does all three in a simple, fixed way — so it sits at the low end of a robot spectrum, and the argument is the point
    3. C.Definitely a robot, exactly like a Mars rover
    4. D.It fails because it has no sensors

    Answer Why?

  5. Which of the three traits will you spend most of Module 1 on?

    1. A.Sense — reading sensors
    2. B.Act — making the robot drive, turn, and draw shapes
    3. C.Think — pathfinding algorithms
    4. D.None — Module 1 is all theory

    Answer Why?