Robotic Project for Kids | How to Build LEGO®-compatible Motorcycle

Robotics for Kids

In the recent decade, robotics has become one of the popular curricula for kids. Learning robotics is a fun and engaging approach that can build kids' confidence and leverage their curiosity, creativity, and team working ability through hands-on activities. Simple robots for kids also develop essential skills such as critical thinking and programming for kids' future careers. In a series of simple machines for kids tutorial blogs, we will have a glance at the basics of robotics that helps kids to begin with.

In this project, we will be making a simple yet cool motorcycle beloved by kids using lego-compatible building blocks and the Cherry Tart set. To quickly point out some of the specs of our motorcycle, it uses a pulley and belt motorized mechanism to transfer power (aka torque) from the dc motor to its wheels. Our motorcycle sits on a pair of wide wheels to balance itself and the Cherry core empowers it to go back and forth. The motion of the motorcycle can interactively be controlled using sound stimuli such as clapping. This tutorial blog demonstrates the motorcycle project and the complete how-to assembly instruction.

For this project, you are going to need a Cherry Tart kit.

Technic Project Motorcycle

Motorcycles come in a variety of types and classes including cruisers, sport bikes, roadsters, and many more. Among them all, choppers are known for their outstanding style and catchy design. That is the reason that their outlandish look ends up on teenagers' bedroom posters.

Driving Mechanism

Motorcycles engines are mounted in the middle of their body framework to maintain weight balance. So the power produced by the engine must be transferred to the rear wheel by either chain or belt. For convenience, we chose a belt mechanism for our schema. The belt mechanism comprises two pulleys mounted on the motor and wheel shafts, and a belt embracing them. The speed and strength of the power transmitted can be adjusted by varying the pulley diameters. The larger the motor pulley gets relatively to the wheel pulley, the more speed and less strength is transmitted to the wheel. Similarly, the smaller the motor pulley gets relative to the wheel pulley, the more strength and less speed are transmitted to the wheel. You can conveniently try this out by swapping the pulleys of the motor and wheel.

What is the Cherry Core?

Cherry core is the main power source of our project. One of the cool features of Cherry core is that it has an onboard microphone that detects sound impulses. Clapping hands or snapping fingers are the two potential sources of sound impulses that stimulate the Cherry core which increases toys' interactivity for kids. With each impulse, Cherry core slightly turns the motor for a short period of time so kids can control how fast their motorcycle is going by clapping faster or slower.

How to Assemble LEGO®-compatible Motorcycle

The following instruction provides step-by-step how-to assembly instructions to build this project.