Grade 5 · Technology · Lesson 29

Sensors & Robots (Intro)

A robot is a machine that senses the world, decides what to do, and then acts. It does this with three working parts: a sensor that takes in information, a controller (the brain) that decides, and an actuator that moves or signals back to the world. Once you spot those three parts, every robot starts to look the same — even a self-driving toy car or a vacuum that bumps your couch.

What this lesson teaches

1Define a sensor as a device that turns something in the world into data
2Match common sensors to what they detect
3Tell inputs (sensing) and outputs (acting) apart in a robot
4Describe the sensor to controller to actuator path in plain words

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