1.3 Project Ideas

✓ TASK

Your team will generate possible ideas for a two-wheeled robot that performs useful tasks for people. After evaluating the ideas, your team will select one concept for your team’s project.

RECOMMENDATION: Focus on quantity of ideas before evaluating them for quality. If helpful, you can use this list of words to help spark your initial idea generation:

• Warehouse, factory, construction, landscaping, homes, shopping, restaurants, hospitals, retirement homes, schools, offices, streets, parks, sports fields, police, fire/rescue, planetary exploration ...

1. If necessary, review the project challenge, including the criteria and constraints.

2. Each team member should independently generate and record at least 10 possible ideas for a two-wheeled robot that could perform useful tasks within a specific context (home, school, business, etc.). If helpful, create quick sketches to help illustrate ideas.

3. As a team, discuss and refine your ideas to form a combined numbered list of ideas for your robot prototype. For each idea, discuss these questions and make any refinements:

   • What are different tasks or behaviors that your robot prototype could demonstrate?

   • Are there certain robot parts or actions that would need to be simulated? If so, can you still create a robot prototype that performs the main tasks?

   • What is the value or benefit of having a robot (instead of a person) perform the tasks?

4. Construct a decision matrix to help evaluate your team’s list of ideas by ranking the relative weight (from Low to High) of each robot idea on these two criteria (and then plotting a numbered point on the matrix to represent each concept):

   • User Value (how useful and valuable would this robot likely be to people)

   • Team Interest (how much interest do you have in pursuing this as your project)

5. Use the decision matrix to select one idea to pursue for your team’s project. Ideally, your selected idea will have high user value and high team interest.

❏ Deliverable

Submit the following:

• Each team member’s initial list of ideas

• Your team’s combined numbered list of ideas and its decision matrix. Be sure to identify which idea was selected for your team's project.

➤ EXAMPLE

Decision Matrix plotting ideas from numbered list

★ RUBRIC

✓- Below Standard	✓ Meets Standard	✓+ Exceeds Standard
Ideation is limited: ideas presented are insufficient in quantity, lacking in diversity or creativity, and/or infeasible to address given the project constraints.	Robust set of diverse, feasible ideas are presented and considered. Idea selected for project has high user value and high team interest.	Ideas demonstrate especially keen or creative insight, recognizing unique problems that the team could address with a robotics solution.