I’m planning to continue working on a Farmbot simulator project that I paused sometime in September last year. I’m interested in getting ideas of what features would be needed in a school set up. And if anyone would still be interested in it. @hideo888
A simple simulator would have only the motion of the bot as controlled from the web-app. This would serve as a training platform for using the farmbot. A more complex one would also have plant growth.
Ohh, I’m very curious to see what you come up with! I think there are many educators who would be excited about a simulator that aren’t necessarily active here on the forum.
We’ve heard from many of our educational customers that they want to be able to simulate student’s full sequences before they are executed by the real machine. This seems to be especially important in schools where a large number of students are learning with FarmBot (for example: the basics of programming) but it is infeasible for everyone to use the real machine due to time constraints or other factors (you can only water your garden so many times a week!)
As an educator who has just installed their first farmbot, having a simulator would be extremely valuable and allow us to roll out the technology to a much wider range of students. Many robotics platforms that are in schools provide such a feature. Especially in the new era we live in, where there’s a greater chance that students will be online, being able to continue with their inquiry in a virtual way is extremely valuable.
I would love to see this, and if you would be interested in getting some student and teacher feedback, please get in touch.
@AidanJ The progress on this work has been slow due to other commitments. But I hope to post a beta version by the end of this month so as to be able to get some feedback.