An open platform for teaching and project based work at the undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Date
2010-09-16
Authors
Passow, Benjamin N.
Wheeler, James
Coupland, Simon
Gongora, Mario Augusto
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
ISSN
DOI
Volume Title
Publisher
AT&P
Peer reviewed
Yes
Abstract
Robots are a great tool for engaging and enthusing students when studying a range of topics. De Montfort University offers a wide range of courses from University access courses to Doctoral training. We use robots as tools to teach technical concepts across this wide and diverse range of learners. We have had great success using the Lego RCX and now NXT on the less demanding courses, and conversely with the MobileRobots Pioneer range for postgraduate and research projects. Although there is a distinct area in between these two where both these platforms meet our needs, neither is suitable for every aspect of our work. For this reason we have developed our own hardware and software platform to fulfil all of our needs. This paper describes the hardware platform and accompanying software and looks at two applications which made use of this system. Our platform presents a low-cost system that enables students to learn about electronics, embedded systems, communication, bus systems, high and low level programming, robot architectures, and control algorithms, all in individual stages using the same familiar hardware and software.
Description
Keywords
Robotics
Citation
Passow, B. et al (2010) An open platform for teaching and project based work at the undergraduate and postgraduate level. Proceedings of the International Conference on Robotics in Education (RIE 2010), pp 155-160, Bratislava, Slovakia, 16-17 Sept.
Research Institute
Institute of Artificial Intelligence (IAI)