NSF Grant OCI-0636235
NSF Grant SCI-0537370
Robotics Toolkit for Pre-College
Engineering Education
Drew Housten (dth29@drexel.edu)
Outline
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Introduction
Motivation
My Background
Toolkit
Educational Materials
Open Discussion
Introduction
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Goals:
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Build a software toolkit to make teaching using
Robots easier in Middle school and High school
education
Put together materials to enable teaching robotics
concepts to students
Today’s Objectives:
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Introduce you to the work
Gather feedback regarding how the work could be
improved or made more useful
Outline
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Introduction
Motivation
My Background
Toolkit
Educational Materials
Open Discussion
Motivation
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Interest in Computer Science is dropping!
From Mehran Sahami’s slides, Stanford University
Source: Higher Education Research Institute, UCLA
From Mehran Sahami’s slides, Stanford University
Motivation
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But, there is a need for Computer Scientists…
Motivation
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What about IT Offshoring?
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In the US, there are more IT jobs today than during
the IT boom
But, there has been a significant increase in
offshoring over the past 5 years
Is the Offshoring effect a myth?
Source: Globalization and Offshoring of Software: A Report of the ACM Job
Migration Task Force (citing the Bureau of Labor Statistics), 2006.
From Mehran Sahami’s slides, Stanford University
Motivation
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Highschool interest is also not increasing
AP exams is a good indicator of interest
Motivation
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Need to get students excited about Computer
Science, Engineering, Math, and other Sciences
Robotics is a excellent tool to encourage
students!
Motivation
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Currently, educational system
sophistication heavily depends
on hardware cost
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LEGO NXT (Fairly Cheap, Limited)
AIBO (Expensive, More Sophisticated)
But, cost of the solution
matters in pre-college
education!
Research does not follow the
same trends
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Example: DARPA Urban
Challenge was mostly a
software problem
Motivation
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Hardware complexity of
educational robotics is currently
sufficient
However, Software and System
complexity of educational robotics
is limited
This problem can be addressed
by building software tools to
bridge the gap
Software tools can be free to
educators
Outline
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Introduction
Motivation
My Background
Toolkit
Educational Materials
Open Discussion
Professional and Educational
Background
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I am not a professional educator
B.S. in Computer Science from Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute
Expected (Sept 2008) M.S. in Computer
Science from Drexel University
Full-time Employment at Lockheed Martin
Advanced Technology Labs
Robotics Education
Background
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F.I.R.S.T. Robotics
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Participant in High school as Team Co-Captain
Mentor for a few years
Volunteer for F.I.R.S.T. LEGO League
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Robotics Education
Background
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Lockheed Martin ATL LEGO Workshop
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Co-organizer
Volunteer Program for 7th and 8th graders
5-weeks
Robotics Education
Background
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DARPA Urban Challenge
Outline
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Introduction
Motivation
My Background
Toolkit
Educational Materials
Open Discussion
Platform
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Built around the iRobot Roomba
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No, not just a vacuum cleaner!
Toolkit Functionality
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Distributed Network Architecture to support a
classroom of robots and students
Control of Roomba’s Actuators and Sensors
Access to Camera images
Vision-assisted Localization of the Roomba
Toolkit
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Java-based
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Works on both Windows and MacOSX
Roomba Network Architecture
Necessary Hardware
Webcam ($50-$150)
iRobot Roomba ($200)
SparkFun Electronics
RooTooth ($100)
Computer ($500 - $2500)
Necessary Hardware
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3 - 4 students per Roomba
Cost Estimates for a 20-person class:
Programming the Roomba
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Students write simple Java Programs
Uses the BlueJ IDE
Sample Roomba Program
Localization
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Determines where a Roomba is located
Uses a fixed-position camera to track the
Roomba and build a Topological Map
Outline
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Introduction
Motivation
My Background
Toolkit
Educational Materials
Open Discussion
Materials
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Introduction Materials for Teachers
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How to use the materials
What is necessary
Organized into Modules (Similar to Chapters)
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Each covers a specific robotics-related topic
Each includes a
 Teacher’s guide
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Discusses other Related Resources
Student’s guide
Presentation Slides (PDF and PowerPoint)
Not meant to be a defined curriculum; meant to
assist development of a curriculum
Modules
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Robotics Introduction
Robot Configurations
Controlling Movement
Sensors and Actuators
Localization
Module: Robotics Introduction
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Introduces Robots, the Roomba, and
programming with the Roomba
Module: Robot Configurations
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Explains robot configurations, different
wheeled robots, and why the configuration is
important
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Module: Controlling Movement
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Students learn about motion, different types
of motion, and how to control the Roomba
Module: Sensors & Actuators
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Introduces the concept of sensors, actuators,
how to use them, behavior-based robotics,
and sense-plan-act systems
Example and Diagram taken from Valentino Braitenberg’s Vehicles:Experiments in Synthetic Psychology
Module: Localization
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Discusses localization, why it is important,
why it is hard, and what are some
approaches to localize the Roomba
Outline
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Introduction
Motivation
My Background
Toolkit
Educational Materials
Open Discussion
Feedback
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Please send me any feedback!
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Drew Housten - dhousten@gmail.com
Materials found at:
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http://gicl.cs.drexel.edu/wiki/LearningRoomba