1. Exploring Computer Science Lesson 6-1
What Is a Robot?
Exploring Computer Science
Lesson 6-1

2. Objectives Students will be able to:
List and explain the criteria that describe a robot.
Determine if something is a robot, using the criteria.

3. Opener/Discussion What do you think of when you hear the word ‘robot’?
What are some examples of different TYPES of ‘robots’?
How would you define a ‘robot’ without using negatives?
How would you define a ‘robot’ only using negatives?
Combine your 2 definitions into 1.

4. Let’s Watch a Video…
Before we watch the video, read the short summary of what we are about to see.
Can you answer any of the following questions before we watch the video (based on the summary)?
What design constraints are being used in the development of Kismet?
How did the engineers test the sociability of Kismet?
Why do the engineers think sociability is so important in a robot?
What problem are the engineers trying to solve with the design work that has led to Kismet?
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5. What Are Robots’s Common Features?
In pairs:
What do all the robots you identified in the opener have in common?
What are robots used for?
What tasks are easy for robots?
What tasks are hard for robots?

6. Let’s Watch Another Video…
As you watch, think about answers for the following questions:
Did these robots have all the common features we identified?
What were these robots used for?
What tasks were easy for Smallsie? Bigsie?
What tasks were hard for Smallsie? Bigsie?

7. What Is a Robot?
Read the ‘What Is a Robot?’ handout. On the back, answer these questions while looking at the picture on your screen:
Using the five criteria from the handout, is the first item a robot? (Write the criterion; say yes or no; explain why.)
Using the five criteria from the handout, is the second item a robot? (Write the criterion; say yes or no; explain why.)
What’s a common item in the school or your home that would NOT meet the five criteria? (Write the criterion; say yes or no; explain why.)

8. Are We Robots? In a group of three or four:
Look over the ‘Are We Robots?’ handout.
Using the five robot criteria, decide whether each item in the table is a robot.
The first five empty columns should be filled in with yes- or-no proof.
The last empty column should be filled in with a yes or no.
The three empty rows should be filled in with three objects of your group’s choice.

9. Let’s watch another video…
As you watch, think about answers for the following questions:
Did this robot meet the five criteria?
Was this robot realistic? Were the robots from “Wire Cutters” realistic? Why yes? Why no?
Based on the 2 videos we just watched, should we add anything else to the five robot criteria?

10. Isaac Asimov’s Laws of Robotics
Law Zero: A robot may not injure humanity, or through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.
Law One: A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Law Two: A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders conflict with Law One.
Law Three: A robot must protect its own existence, as long as such protection does not conflict with Laws One and Two.
Why did Asimov come up with these laws?
How do you think these laws affect our thinking about robots today?
Why are these laws important in light of the robots we saw in “Changing Batteries” and “Wire Cutters”?

11. Let’s Watch a Final Video…
Is it possible?
Are you worried?
What would Isaac Asimov think?