Robots in the laboratory

ABSTRACT

A $70 toy robot has been successfully used in Computer Science undergraduate laboratory courses in real-time programming and advanced operating systems to provide students with hands on experience. A custom designed interface card connects a Radio Shack Armatron toy mobile robot with an IBM PC. To provide sensory input and hence introduce feedback, the robot is shackled to a track filled with sensors. Extra sensors in the robot's environment allow challenging experiments such as picking up an object from a moving belt. While programming the robot and its environment in Turbo Pascal, the students learn how to write software drivers to control low level hardware that requires real-time response. This experimental design obviates the need to use sophisticated test equipment or special software development tools, and so the robot has transformed potentially routine courses into a exciting and fulfilling learning experiences.

REFERENCES

• Comer 84: Douglas Comer, Operating system design: the XINU approach, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1984
• Foster 81: Foster, C. Real Time Programmin8 - Negleczed Topics. Addison-Wesley, Readin8, Massachusetts, 1981. ISBN 0-201-01937-X.
• Gips 86: James Gips, A robotics course using hero I robots, ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, v.18 n.4, p.65-68, Dec. 1986 [doi>10.1145/15003.15017]
• Kernighan 82: B. W. Kernighan , D. M. Ritchie, The C programming language, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1978
• Krish 87: Mukkai S. Krishnamoorthy , Snorri Agnarsson, Concurrent programming in Turbo Pascal, BYTE, v.12 n.4, p.127-133, April 1987
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• Milenkovitch 87: Milan Milenkovic, Operating systems: concepts and design, McGraw-Hill, Inc., New York, NY, 1992
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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.2 Computer and Information Science Education
          Subjects: Computer science education

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.4 OPERATING SYSTEMS
      D.4.0 General

          Nouns: MS-DOS

  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.2 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
      I.2.9 Robotics
          Subjects: Sensors; Manipulators

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.2 Computer and Information Science Education
          Subjects: Curriculum
  K.8 PERSONAL COMPUTING

      Nouns: IBM PC

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors