Seven big ideas in robotics, and how to teach them

Abstract

Robotics is widely recognized as an interdisciplinary mixture of engineering and computer science, but the latter component is not well represented at many undergraduate institutions. The sophisticated technologies that underlie perception, planning, and control mechanisms in modern robots need to be made accessible to more computer science undergraduates.Following the curriculum design principles of Wiggins and McTighe (Understanding by Design, 2 nd Ed.), I present seven big ideas in robotics that can fit together in a one semester undergraduate course. Each is introduced with an essential question, such as "How do robots see the world?" The answers expose students to deep concepts in computer science in a context where they can be immediately demonstrated. Hands-on labs using the Tekkotsu open source software framework and robots costing under $1,000 facilitate mastery of these important ideas. Courses based on parts of an early version of this curriculum are being offered at Carnegie Mellon and several other universities.

Robotics for computer scientists: what’s the big idea?

“…Table 1 gives a list of 10 such questions, the big ideas they introduce, and their underlying technologies. An earlier version of this list was presented in Touretzky (2012). A robotics survey course can discuss these big ideas, but real mastery requires hands-on experimentation.…”

Mobile computing and robotics in one course

“…Touretzky describes "seven big ideas" for teaching robotics [20], which collectively could shape the students' understanding of the fundamental ideas in the field of robotics. Each of the seven ideas poses a question, which uses the robotics context to expose students to a deeper and often rather complex computing concept, but at the same time offers a tangible answer that is easy to demonstrate and understand.…”

“…However, since their interest in computing may have been sparked or sustained by robots, these students may be seeking more experience with robotics in the rest of the computing curriculum. As it stands right now, there are not too many undergraduate Computer Science programs that offer courses in robotics or include robotics-related material beyond CS 0 or CS I [20]. This paper describes the author's attempt to fill this void by exploring the possibility to combine robotics and mobile computing in a single course.…”

Enabling Graduate Engineering Students With Proficiency in Mobile Robotics

“…Incorporating existing ROS-enabled hardware platforms for robotics training has several apparent advantages: the TurtleBot robots by Willow Garage, for instance, is well suited for educational programs as it allows instructors to focus on the theoretical aspects of mobile robotics while at the same time allowing for physical learning experience. The use of the TurtleBot in education is well supported by literature [4]. Maas and Maehle compliment the object-oriented nature of robots such as TurtleBot and Bilibot [3], by highlighting their similarity to the concepts in object-oriented programming, hence making it ideal for introductory lessons.…”