1. Robotics for Embedded Systems Education Joseph Zambreno 10/16/06

2. Motivation Investigate robotics platforms that might be used for 288/388/488 sequence Can we do better than…  …microcontroller on a breadboard?  …simulator? Requirements:  Flexibility to conduct multiple labs  Ability to explore concepts like memory addressing and I/O, interrupt handling, ADC/DAC, etc.  C programming interface

3. Common Uses Robotics typically not being used in introductory CprE courses  Slightly more common in introductory ComS courses  Also found in 300/400 level courses in robotics, AI, embedded systems, mechatronics Most common usage in K-12 outreach programs Some available resources:  NASA Robotics Alliance – http://robotics.nasa.govhttp://robotics.nasa.gov  Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy – http://www- education.rec.ri.cmu.eduhttp://www- education.rec.ri.cmu.edu  Iowa State University Robotics Club (ISURC) – http://nukelab1.student.iastate.edu http://nukelab1.student.iastate.edu

4. Academic Projects Stiquito (http://www.stiquito.com)http://www.stiquito.com  Developed at Indiana University in 1992  J. Conrad, “Stiquito for Robotics and Embedded Systems Education”, IEEE Computer, vol. 38, no. 6, pp. 77-81, June 2005.  Hexapod robot Six legs glued to a simple PCB TI MSP430 microprocessor 4Kb of flash memory  Small, inexpensive (comes with the textbook!)  Limited ability, flexibility

5. Academic Projects (2) Palm Pilot Robot Kit (http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pprk)http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pprk Developed at CMU in 2000 Three-wheeled robot  Palm Pilot or other PDA controls the system More functional than Stiquito Fairly expensive (PDA, sensors not included) PDA requirement complicates programming interface

6. LEGO Mindstorms http://mindstorms.lego.com Mindstorms RCX  Renesas/Hitachi H8 microcontroller  Graphical programming model (LabView)  Third-party modifications for C, other languages Mindstorms NCX  ARM7 microprocessor  Atmel AVR microcontroller  USB/Bluetooth connectivity D. Cliburn, “Experiences with the LEGO Mindstorms throughout the Undergraduate Computer Science Curriculum”, ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2006. Very popular, lots of resources available Targeted for grades 4-8? Limited to LEGO parts?

7. Other Systems Parallax, Inc. makes several robotics kits (http://www.parallax.com)http://www.parallax.com  Boe-bot  Hexcrawler All built on BASIC stamp microcontroller  PIC16C57 microcontroller  BASIC interpreter

8. Other Systems (2) Vex Robotics Design System (http://www.vexlabs.com)http://www.vexlabs.com  Two PIC18F8250 microcontrollers  16 I/O ports  Programming kit with C compiler S. Cass, “Getting Vexed”, IEEE Spectrum, May 2006. RC controlled but can be autonomous Less limitation on design

9. Next Steps Is this the direction we want to go in? Best bets: Vex system or LEGO Mindstorms  LEGO is fairly well-established in this area  Vex systems more flexible and are a bit more serious than LEGO Team-up with ISURC group to gain further insight into the different choices