Control & Motion
Self-Driving Delivery Bot
Guided by Sebastian Thrun
Design a delivery bot that takes a package from your bedroom to the kitchen. It has to pick a route, avoid obstacles, and know when to stop.
Watch
See it happen in the real world.
A self-driving car is three things stitched together: sensors to see the world, a map to know where it's going, and a planner that decides the next move. Sebastian Thrun's team won the DARPA Grand Challenge in 2005 by getting a car to drive 132 miles across the Mojave Desert without a human touching the wheel. The car wasn't fast. It was relentless — it never got bored, never lost focus, never assumed anything.
Watch this
Stanford University
Sebastian Thrun's Stanford page
From Stanley (DARPA 2005) to Project Chauffeur (now Waymo).
Wikipedia
DARPA Grand Challenge
The desert race that proved self-driving cars were possible.
NASA JPL
NASA's Self-Driving Perseverance Mars Rover
Autonomy isn't just on Earth — Perseverance drives itself across Mars.
Think
A question worth sitting with.
If your delivery bot meets a dog in the hallway, should it stop, swerve, or honk?
Build
Make something with your hands.
Draw a map of your house on paper. Mark obstacles — pets, shoes, chairs. Plan three different routes from your bedroom to the kitchen and write down which is shortest, safest, and most fun.
Step-by-step
On a sheet of paper, sketch your house from above. Label your bedroom, the kitchen, and every room in between.
Mark every obstacle with a small symbol: pet, shoes, chair, closed door.
Draw Route A: the shortest path, ignoring obstacles. Time how long a slow robot would take to walk it.
Draw Route B: the safest path, avoiding every obstacle even if it's longer.
Draw Route C: the most fun path — maybe through the living room or past a window.
Pick the winner and write down WHY. Then ask a parent to move one obstacle. Re-plan in your head. Did the winner change?
Toolkit
- Paper
- Household
Play
Test it. See what it does.
Walk one of your routes blindfolded with a partner reading directions. The partner can only say 'forward', 'turn left', 'turn right', or 'stop'. Count how many corrections it takes.
Challenge
Push it a little further.
Add a surprise obstacle — a chair moved at the last second. Replan your route on the fly. Did your delivery bot make it through?
Reflect
Notice what your robot taught you.
What would you improve about how your delivery bot handled surprises?
Also ask yourself
What surprised you?
Reward
Mission outro
+0XP
“There's always a next move. Keep going.”
Skills advanced: control systems, motion planning