Micromelon and ICT Gateway To Industry Schools Program
The ICT Gateway to Industry Schools Program (GISP) and Micromelon Robotics partner to provide ICT GISP Teachers and Students a world-class, Brisbane-made, online robotics simulator with added services and resources unavailable to schools outside the program.
The Micromelon Simulator
The Micromelon Robot Simulator is a virtual environment filled with activities you can complete without needing a physical Rover. There are a large range of simulated activities with varying complexity. Completing them all will require the use of all available sensors and advanced coding techniques.
What You Need To Get Started
Your Micromelon School Account
To get access to your Micromelon account enter your details into the form. Once you have requested your account; Micromelon will email you your account details. Once you have your account you will be able to log into Micromelon software.
The Simulator
You will need to download and install the simulator. The Robot Simulator is available for download from the Windows Store and Apple App Store.
The Code Editor
The robot simulator is a virtual recreation of a Micromelon rover. Just as you would need the code editor to control the Micromelon rover; you also need the code editor to control the robot simulator. The code editor is our block & python based coding environment. You can download the code editor for free from the download buttons below. By downloading this software you are agreeing to the terms and conditions.
Getting Started With The Simulator
Once you’ve got your account from Micromelon and downloaded and installed the simulator and code editor you are reading to start coding! Below we will outline how to use the simulator.
Selecting A Simulator Exercise
When you first open the Robot Simulator, you’ll see a list of all the available exercises on the left. Scroll through the list and find an activity that you would like to try.
The Spike Drop and Free Space are great first exercises. If you’re starting to become familiar with programming the Rover, try the Prison Escape or Line Following activity. Once you’re feeling more confident, the Maze or Sumo activities provide a stronger challenge.
Have To Login To Access an Activity?
Like we mentioned before, some of the Robot Simulator activities require a licence. The Robot Simulator licence is attached to your Micromelon account. This is the same one you use to log into the Code Editor.
How To Log Into The Simulator
Press the LOGIN button.
You can either enter your Micromelon username and password in the form, or you can login automatically from the Code Editor you have already logged in to. To login from the Code Editor, enter the Bot ID of 9000 and click ‘GO!’.
Here’s a demonstration of how to log into the simulator by connecting from the Code Editor.
Simulator View
Code Editor View
Attempting an Exercise
Selecting an Activity
Click on the activity you want to try. You will see all the details for the activity appear on the right. Some of the activities such as Sumo and Maze have customisation options.
For this post, we’re going to pick the Spike Drop activity. Let’s press the PLAY button.
Need To Return To The Menu?
If you need to return to the main menu to pick a different activity, you can press the MENU button in the top right corner or the CHOOSE EXERCISE button from the menu.
Completing The Activity
When you select the activity, you will see your simulator Rover appear at the starting point for this activity. This is the Rover you will program to complete the activity.
For the Spike Drop activity, we can see the Rover starts in the no parking zone.
Accessing Instructions and Tips
If you’re not sure what you’re doing, you can open the activity help dialog by selecting HELP in the menu.
Running Code On The Simulator Rover
So for this activity we know we currently are in the no parking zone, and staying here is bad. We need to write code to drive our Rover forward, and avoid falling into the spike pit that’s right next to the parking zone (not a very safe design if you ask me). Let’s write some code to solve this situation. Our simulated Rover works exactly the same as a real Rover, so we program it in the same way.
How To Run Code From The Code Editor
If you’re not already connected to the simulated Rover, enter 9000 into the bot ID input in the Code Editor.
Write your code.
Press the play button on the Code Editor.
Once you press Run Code, the simulated Rover will execute the code. You can also run and stop your code from the simulator’s Rover control panel in the top right of the screen. The below animation shows using the blocks editor to write and execute an example solution to the activity.
Robot Simulator View
Code Editor View
Reset Your Rover Back To The Starting Point
By default, whenever you run code on the Rover it will be sent back to the starting point of the activity so that you don’t need to manually reset each time. You can enable and disable this behaviour from the menu.
Manually Resetting The Rover
If you want to reset your Rover to the starting point at any time, you can press the reset button on the simulator rover control panel in the top right.
Changing The Camera Angle
If you would like you can change the camera angle to get a different view of the activity, use the camera controls in the bottom left.
Using Keyboard Controls & Sensor View
Enabling Keyboard Controls
Simulator Rovers can be controlled using the keyboard arrows. From the menu, click the ‘Enable Keyboard Controls’ toggle to enable this. You can use the keyboard arrow keys to move the Rover.
Using Sensor View With The Simulator Rover
Just like the normal Rover you can also use the sensor view from the Code Editor to see the sensor values of the simulator Rover. This can be useful to leave open while using keyboard controls in the simulator. Watching what the sensors see at different points in the activity can help you to write your solutions. Note that the battery sensor readings are not relevant in the simulator.
Teacher Tools Available To You
The ICT GIST & Micromelon partnership provides your school with complete access to the Micromelon school plan. If you have yet to setup your school accounts check out the How To Setup A School post.
How To Setup A School
If your school is already setup and ready to go, check out the Using Classroom Management Features guide to see how the Code Editor can help you manage your class.
Using Classroom Management Features
Next Steps
There are many exercises already built into the simulator. You can find all of these exercises in the exercise list of the simulator main menu. Below we will link to some activity posts you can use to get started with completing simulator exercises.
