How to make a street lamp smart? | DF LAB: Inventor Series EP02

Ashg May 06.2020

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Welcome to the DF Lab!

"How to make a street lamp smart?" is a workshop course in "DF LAB:Inventor Series". In order to enable students to learn through playing, to explore the principle of "smart" street lamps and to stimulate interests in circuits, we have followed a scientific and reasonable project production process, added vivid circuit knowledge as well as simple and effective incentive evaluation mechanism to the course to help students quickly connect circuits, build models, and learn to solve practical problems while experiencing fun.

Hi! Want to make a street lamp for your mini world? All you need is a paper mold to build a unique street lamp structure, and some BOSON modules to connect a simple logic circuit, Voila, creation is so simple and fun, let’s do it!

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Play and Learn with Boson Science Kit: https://www.dfrobot.com/product-1742.html.

EP02 Guide for Smart Street Lamp Workshop.

Overview

In this workshop, students need to work in teams to design and make a smart street lamp for the government. The smart street lamp is required to be turned on only when sound is detected during the night time(no daylight). Difficulty Level: 4

Setup

Age: k3-k6

Number of Participants: 2~24

● 2~3 students for one team

● Prepare a name label for each student in case they don’t know each other

● Arrange tables and chairs in U-shape for each team

● Put tools and other materials in two specified places of the room

Learning Goals

● Design and make a smart street lamp

● Develop teamwork skills

● Learn to build up a circuit with BOSON

● Use digital media tools to shoot video clips

Materials

● BOSON Inventor Kit V1.0 (Refer to introduction for more details)

● Paper Model (See appendix)

● Colored Paper

Tool

● Scissors

● Colored Pen

● Cutter Knife

● Camera or Smart Phone

Time

2~3 hours.

Award and Evaluation Criteria

Students should be informed of the award and evaluation criteria. Special awards will be given to individuals or teams who perform well in the competition.

Process

● Warm-up

5min Improvement on normal street lamps

● Introduction

8~12min a. What is BOSON? b. Project interaction display c. Get to know modules and learn how to connect

● Start Making

20~40min a. Analyze and check b. Cut paper c. Assemble

● Test

5min a. Test structure and function

● Optimization

5~10min a. Project appearance optimization

● Share

5~20min a. Video shooting b. Project presentation

● Evaluation

5min Project evaluation

● Clean up

5min Dismantle projects and clean up

● Rethink

5min Projects review

Warm-up (5min): teachers ask some questions about normal street lighting to lead students to think about how to design a smart street lamp.

Question 1: common street lamps usually keep on throughout the night, and they need to be turned on/off manually. Is there a way to control the street lamps automatically?

Answer: we have noticed that street lamps only work in the night, so we can make them "sense" the day and night, then turn off automatically in the day and turn on in the night.

Question 2: ordinary street lamps in working hours always keep on regardless of the presence of people, which could waste a lot of energy, how do we solve this problem?

Answer: let the street lamp "sense" the presence of people around, turn on the lamp when there are people, otherwise, turn off.

Introduction(8~12min)

a.What is BOSON?

b.Project interaction display

c. Get to know modules and learn how to connect

What is BOSON? Teachers play the video below to show students what BOSON is？

Project interaction present

● Teachers demonstrate the project interaction effect using material objects.

● Present the project effect by playing video

BOSON module function and connection

Teachers tell students the module name and similar applications in daily life.

The smart street lamp needs power from main-board and power source.

Use a light sensor and sound sensor to make smart street lamp sense light and the presence of people.

Realize lighting function with a bright light LED, it is an actuator.

How can we make the smart street lamp light only when the presence of people is detected during the night time? Since there are two conditions to meet, a logic “And”module is what we need here.

The smart street lamp turns on in the day, and turn off in the night, which is exactly opposite from our expectation. What should we do? The logic “Not”module works here.

The noise from birds or insects could also be detected by the sound sensor, which may accidentally switch on the street lamp. So we need a “Threshold”module to filter out these small noises.

The “Duration”module can make the street lamp keep on for a fixed period.

*You can also use the Duration Module (0-60s) as follow:

Module “And”,“Not”,“Threshold”and“Duration”all belong to the function module.

Have you noticed the color of these BOSON modules? Red is for power supply, blue for sensor, green for actuator, and yellow for function module. How to connect them correctly?

Place the blue sensor on the left side of the power board, and the green actuator on the right side.

The yellow function module can be placed between the sensor and the power main board or between the power main board and the actuator according to its function.

Start Making (20min~40min):

Analyze(how to realize functions and connect hardware) and check; cut paper; assemble.

Test (5min):

Test whether the project structure is firm and all the modules are tightly clamped. Function test: teachers create a silent environment in the workshop to allow students to test their projects under the following conditions one by one.

● No light, no sound, off

● No light, sound detected, on

● Light detected, no sound, off

● Light detected, sound detected, off

Optimization (5~10min):

Use colored pen or paper to beautify the appearance of the project.

Share(5~20min)

a.Shoot a video for the project, and post it to social account.

● Project display

● Effect demonstration

● Group photo

b.Present and introduce the project on stage

● Introduce the basic function of the project

● What improvements have you made? And why do you do that?

● What’s the highlight of your project?

Evaluation (5min)

Assess students’ works according to the Evaluation Criteria(see appendix) and select the best one.

Clean up (5min)

● Dismantle the BOSON module on the project

● Put all modules back to the BOSON box.

● Put Inventor Kit and Tools to the specified place.

● Clean up the litters on the table and ground.

Rethink (5min)

● What’s the role of logic “And”module in the project? Can it be removed?

● Try designing an energy-saving lighting system for your home. What factors do you need to consider?

Note

Here are some factors that should be taken into account when designing this workshop, and teachers can adjust, add or cancel some unimportant parts of the process as actual conditions.

● Age: adjust the requirement of skill and knowledge according to students’ age and cognitive ability.

● Time: 50 minutes or more.

● Number of Students: control the number of students and choose to carry out a project in the form of individuals or groups as the actual scene.