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Programming Linear and Joint Movement

Materials Required:
Quantity Materials Needed
1

VEX V5 Workcell

1

VEXcode V5

1

Engineering Notebook

1

Device to run VEXcode V5

1

Micro-USB cable

2

Dry-erase markers (two different colors)

In this section, you will explore linear and joint movements of the V5 Workcell. You will draw two points on the whiteboard in the Workcell with a dry-erase marker. You will then create the ‘Movement’ project in VEXcode V5 in order to record the (x, y, z) coordinate locations of Point 1 and Point 2.

Once you have the coordinates for Point 1 and Point 2, you will use the Midpoint formula to calculate a third point, Point 3, that will lie in the middle of Point 1 and Point 2. You will then add [Joint movement] blocks to your project to program the arm mounted on the VEX V5 Workcell to start at Point one, and trace its path using the dry-erase marker to move to Point 2 using joint movement.

Once you observe joint movement, you will add [Linear move] blocks to your project in order to observe the movement of the arm mounted on the V5 Workcell drawing these three points in a line using the dry-erase marker.

You will finish the activity by comparing linear versus joint movement based on your observations.

You will begin by creating the ‘Movement’ project.