Introducing Robotics at the Undergraduate Level

AAAI Symposium on Robotics in AI and CS …, 2007

Introduction At the new Qatar branch campus of Carnegie Mellon Uni-versity, a new robotics based course is being offered which is targeted at undergraduates early in their course of study. This course is designed as a departure point for building breadth and ...

International Conference on Informatics in Secondary Schools, 2006

This paper reports on a programming lesson using autonomous robots in junior high school. First, the design of the low cost circuit board for the lesson is described. The structure of a general programming language “Dolittle” which controls a robot is also explained. Then, we introduce lessons of manufacturing and controlling robots in “Information and Computer” area of “Technology and Home Economics” subject for students (from 14 to 15 years old). From the result of the lessons we found that (1) learning programming is “hard fun” for students and (2) robot programming is effective for students those who have difficulties in learning. We propose introduction of learning programming with autonomous robots to IT education of junior high school.

Revista UIS Ingenierías, 2017

Mobile robots platforms are being used in different Educational contexts such as primary, middle and high school levels of education. A review of the state of the art shows that 197 papers have been published in this field of knowledge over the last 10 years [1]. Nowadays, Latin America faces a serious problem regarding student enrollment in engineering programs with a ratio of one graduated Engineer per every 4500 to 10000 people [2] depending on country. In Colombia, the SPADIES program [3] states that an important aspect of the dropout was due to the lack of motivation and interaction of students with real artifacts that linked the theory and the practice. In this work, a set of programmable mobile robots were developed considering different levels of knowledge, as a tool for basic programming experimentation. The set of mobile robots embodies sensors for proximity, line, light, inertial, and vision. Moreover, this set also incorporates tools such as Bluetooth, LEDs-ring and, a mechanical support for an erasable marker. This set of mobile robots consolidates a hands-on tool to introduce students to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. The results reported in this paper show the mobile robots functionality when they are programmed using different levels of complexity.

Proceedings of the 4th international conference conference on Computer systems and technologies e-Learning - CompSysTech '03, 2003

This paper presents the challenges in the design and preparations for teaching an introductory undergraduate course in Robotics, which is typically offered in engineering departments. A survey of selected related courses that have been offered in other schools will be presented, as well as the dilemmas (and some of the choices) while deciding on the components of the course, while offering it in a traditional classroom, and online.

IEEE EDUCON 2010 Conference, 2010

It is well known that the number of students that arrives to engineering studies decreases every year, due to the difficulty that these studies present, when compared to other studies, in a society that tends to be more social oriented than in the past. In order to increase the interest of the students this paper presents a Project Based Learning (PBL) that involves hardware and software using the robotics as the main object in computer studies. This educational project is being held in the Computer Science and Computer Engineering studies of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

2011

In this paper we will discuss the experience of using simple robotics projects to introduce first year students to engineering. The key learning objectives and tools used to implement them and the evaluation results will be detailed. Evaluation results show that robotics projects are effective in engaging the students and an effective active learning tool.

Mobile Robots - Current Trends, 2011

Object-oriented programming (OOP) abstract concepts are often difficult to understand for students, since it is not easy to find the equivalence of such concepts in daily life. In this paper we will study if an interdisciplinary approach based on an introduction to robotics and robot programming helps the student in acquiring the OOP concepts. For our experiments, we selected a sample of thirty individuals among students with an adequate knowledge of procedural programming. This sample was divided into two groups of fifteen students each: for the first one we used a standard introductory approach to C#, whereas for the second one we developed an experimental course that included a demonstration program that illustrated OOP basic concepts using the features of a specific type of commercial ball-shaped robot with sensing, wireless communication and output capabilities. After the courses, both groups were evaluated by completing a multiple-choice exam and a C# programming exercise. Our results show that the student group that attended the course including the robot demo showed a higher interest level (i.e. they felt more motivated) than those students that attended the standard introductory C# course. Furthermore, the students from the experimental group also achieved an overall better mark.

This paper presents the details of the curricular con-tent developed for a two-course robotics sequence within the undergraduate Robotics Engineering pro-gram at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The ap-proach focuses on teaching a unified robotics curricu-lum, incorporating the foundational concepts from computer science, electrical engineering and mechan-ical engineering, in an integrative manner by empha-sizing the whole system design. Outcomes include high student satisfaction, enhanced student learning and a broad engineering education to meet the needs of the growing robotics industry.

Proceedings of the twenty-ninth SIGCSE …, 1998

Our approach is to conceive of topicsin ALas robotics tasks. In the laboratory, students build their own robots and program them to acconiplish the tasks.+ :By con-structing a physical entity in conjunction with the code to control it, students have a unique opportunity to di-rectly ...