First Steps into Practical Engineering for Freshman Students Using MATLAB and LEGO Mindstorms Robots

Besides lectures on basic theoretical topics, contemporary teaching and learning concepts for first semester students give more and more consideration to practically motivated courses. In this context, a new first-year introductory course in practical engineering has been established in the first semester curriculum of Electrical Engineering at RWTH Aachen University, Germany. Based on a threefold learning concept, programming skills in MATLAB are taught to 309 students within a full-time block course laboratory. The students are encouraged to transfer known mathematical basics to program algorithms and real-world applications performed by 100 LEGO Mindstorms robots. A new MATLAB toolbox and twofold project tasks have been developed for this purpose by a small team of supervisors. The students are supervised by over 60 tutors at 23 institutes, and are encouraged to create their own robotics applications. We describe how the laboratory motivates the students to act and think like engineers and to solve real-world issues with limited resources. The evaluation results show that the proposed practical course concept successfully boosts students’ motivation, advances their programming skills, and encourages the peer learning process.

A Novel Real-Time MATLAB/Simulink/LEGO EV3 Platform for Academic Use in Robotics and Computer Science

Over the last years, mobile robot platforms are having a key role in education worldwide. Among others, LEGO Robots and MATLAB/Simulink are being used mainly in universities to improve the teaching experience. Most LEGO systems used in the literature are based on NXT, as the EV3 version is relatively recent. In contrast to the previous versions, the EV3 allows the development of real-time applications for teaching a wide variety of subjects as well as conducting research experiments. The goal of the research presented in this paper was to develop and validate a novel real-time educational platform based on the MATLAB/Simulink package and the LEGO EV3 brick for academic use in the fields of robotics and computer science. The proposed framework is tested here in different university teaching situations and several case studies are presented in the form of interactive projects developed by students. Without loss of generality, the platform is used for testing different robot path planning algorithms. Classical algorithms like rapidly-exploring random trees or artificial potential fields, developed by robotics researchers, are tested by bachelor students, since the code is freely available on the Internet. Furthermore, recent path planning algorithms developed by the authors are also tested in the platform with the aim of detecting the limits of its applicability. The restrictions and advantages of the proposed platform are discussed in order to enlighten future educational applications

Learning in Informal Environments Through Engineering Activities Through the Partnership with the Girl Scouts

More affordable and portable robots have enabled easier access for outreach activities to happen in different environments. However, exposure to robotics often relies on seeing robots in action, such as industrial robotics and robots that are used for research purposes. Old Dominion University’s College of Engineering and Technology in Norfolk, Virginia recently signed a partnership agreement with the Girl Scouts of Colonial Coast as one of the focused outreach strategies that target the female population. Various events are held on campus in the Hampton Roads residential area located in the southeastern United States, which has a population of around 2 million people. Through this method, elementary age girls can be exposed to engineering content by attending events that are held on the university campus and lead by faculty along with graduate and undergraduate students. This paper showcases one such learning activity through an informal setting activity designed for the K-5 elementary grade levels. In this case, Girl Scouts in the following groups: Daisies, Brownies, and Juniors. Similar activities can be delivered on any other college campus that offers majors related to the area of mechanical engineering / mechanical engineering technology; civil engineering / civil engineering technology; and electrical engineering / electrical engineering technology

Legodroid: A Type-Driven Library for Android and LEGO Mindstorms Interoperability

LEGO Mindstorms robots are widely used as educational tools to acquire skills in programming complex systems involving the interaction of sensors and actuators, and they offer a flexible and modular workbench to design and evaluate user-machine interaction prototypes in the robotic area. However, there is still a lack of support to interoperability features and the need of high-level tools to program the interaction of a robot with other devices. In this paper, we introduce Legodroid, a new Java library enabling cross-programming LEGO Mindstorms robots through Android smartphones that exploits their combined computational and sensorial capabilities in a seamless way. The library provides a number of type-driven coding patterns for interacting with sensors and motors. In this way, the robustness of the software managing robot's sensors dramatically improves

Pythagorean Approximations for LEGO: Merging Educational Robot Construction with Programming and Data Analysis

Abstract. This paper can be used in two ways. It can provide reference information for incorporating diagonal elements (for bracing or gear meshing) in educational robots built from standard LEGO kits. Alternatively, it can be used as the basis for an assignment for high school or college students to recreate this information; in the process, students will exercise skills in both computer programming and data analysis. Using the paper in the second way can be an excellent integrative experience to add to an existing course; for example, the Exploring Computer Science high school curriculum concludes with the units “Introduction to Programming”, “Computing and Data Analysis”, and “Robotics”

Revisión de la plataforma robótica Lego Mindstorms para aplicaciones educativas y de investigación

Nowadays, robotics is considered one of the main areas of interest in science and technology. In almost all sectors of the society we encounter the robotization, i.e., automated systems. In industry, robots are used for welding, transporting, assembling and painting pieces. In medicine, sophisticated robots help to conduct complex surgeries. In the military sector, robots are used to explore hostile areas. Therefore, mobile robotics and autonomous systems are topics of growing interest in Computer Science and Engineering careers. Therefore, in this paper we present a review of the main characteristics of the LEGO Mindstorms robots, examining the development environments available for compiling software programs that help to define the robot behavior. In addition, an analysis is carried out of success cases using NXT robots in university courses, as well as its use in research prototypes.La robótica es considerada como una de las áreas de gran interés de la ciencia y la tecnología de hoy en día. La robotización, es decir, los sistemas automatizados, se encuentran en casi todos los sectores de la sociedad. En la industria, los robots son utilizados para soldar, transportar, montar y pintar piezas. En medicina, robots sofisticados ayudan a llevar a cabo cirugías complejas. En el sector militar, los robots son usados para explorar áreas hostiles. Por tal motivo, la robótica móvil y los sistemas autónomos son tópicos de creciente interés en los programas educativos de Ingeniería y Ciencias Computacionales. Por lo anterior, en este trabajo se presenta una revisión de las principales características de los robots educativos LEGO Mindstorms, examinando los entornos de desarrollo disponibles para la compilación de programas de software que permitan definir el comportamiento del robot. Además, un análisis de casos de éxito en la utilización de los robots NXT en programas educativos universitarios, así como su uso en prototipos en trabajos de investigación

MIKROUPRAVLJAČI U NASTAVI – REALNOST ILI TRENUTNA ZALUĐENOST?

U radu je predstavljeno nekoliko vrsta mikroupravljača i lego robot koji su svi namijenjeni razvoju računalnog razmišljanja i programiranja, ali se ujedno mogu koristiti i u poučavanju ostalih predmeta. Jedan od tih uređaja je BBC micro:bit, koji je predstavljen 2015. godine u Velikoj Britaniji. Uređaj se u kratkom periodu raširio u nekoliko Europskih država, od Velike Britanije, Švedske, pa i do Hrvatske. Razne informatičke tvrtke trude se animirati učenike za rad s tim uređajem, pa tako osmišljavaju nagradne zadatke kako bi se učenike potaknulo na programiranje

Encouraging early mastery of computational concepts through play

Learning to code, and more broadly, learning about computer science is a growing field of activity and research. Under the label of computational thinking, computational concepts are increasingly used as cognitive tools in many subject areas, beyond computer science. Using playful approaches and gamification to motivate educational activities, and to encourage exploratory learning is not a new idea since play has been involved in the learning of computational concepts by children from the very start. There is a tension however, between learning activities and opportunities that are completely open and playful, and learning activities that are structured enough to be easily replicable among contexts, countries and classrooms. This paper describes the conception, refinement, design and evaluation of a set of playful computational activities for classrooms or code clubs, that balance the benefits of playfulness with sufficient rigor and structure to enable robust replication.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure