Incorporating Robotics into Secondary Education

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World Automation Congress Ninth International Symposium on Robotics with Applications

Orlando, Florida, USA June 9-13, 2002

Incorporating Robotics into Secondary Education

Kevin Wedeward and Stephen Bruder

Incorporating Robotics into Secondary Education Kevin Wedeward and Stephen Bruder Department of Electrical Engineering New Mexico Tech Socorro, NM 87801 ABSTRACT Universities can play an important role in the high school educational system [1]. In particular, New Mexico Tech has developed a robotics outreach program to provide high school students exposure to engineering concepts via building small robots. The authors have developed an integrated approach for incorporating robotics into secondary education with the objective of further engaging students through an exciting application of math, computers, and science. One of the principal objectives of this outreach effort is to promote the creation of programs at the secondary school level in New Mexico by providing a resource base for the teachers and students. These resources include an adaptable mobile robot kit, training, significant web-based materials (course offerings, an assembly/user manual, …) directed to both secondary students and teachers, and a personnel support structure including college engineering faculty, secondary teachers, practicing engineers, undergraduate engineering students, and junior-high and high-school students. KEYWORDS: Robotics, micro-controller, high school, education. DEVELOPING A HIGH SCHOOL ROBOTICS PROGRAM The overall objective of this outreach effort is to develop sustainable programs at the high school level such that high school students and teachers (see Figure 1) will gain credible exposure to the field of engineering through interdisciplinary design [2]. New Mexico Tech’s (NMT) robotics endeavors in secondary education evolved primarily from a one-semester design course taught at the junior level [3] in the electrical engineering department. For the past six years students enrolled in NMT’s EE junior

Figure 1: High school teachers building a small robot

design course were tasked with working in groups to build small mobile robots capable of competing in the Trinity College Fire Fighting Home Robot Contest [4]. Over time the student designs evolved to become simpler and better packaged leading the authors to believe that a simple mobile robot kit with generous functionality and expandability could be developed for a reasonable cost and could serve a wide audience. Open houses and class competitions were held at the end of every semester to culminate the design project and teachers and students from around New Mexico were invited to spend a day watching NMT engineering students present and operate their designs. Attending educators and students showed considerable interest in learning more about robotics and inquired as to how robot technologies could be incorporated into their classrooms. Inspired by educational interest and the growing idea for a mobile robot kit, the authors chose to pursue curriculum development for courses that would serve secondary students and their schoolteachers. New Mexico Tech’s four-part education plan (see Figure 2) focused on assembling the following key components: i. Experimental hardware for hands-on investigations, ii. Sample secondary education curriculum, iii. Continued education for teachers, and iv. Complete web-based documentation and resources.

Web Resources

Secondary Students

Synergistic The mobile robot kit serves as the Program experimental hardware providing a basis for studies in math, physics, and computer programming. Similar approaches have proven to be effective at the high-school level [1-3,5]. Student and teacher needs were addressed through courses offered at two different levels: a Robot Kit junior-high / high-school robotics course Teachers and a Masters of Science in Teaching course offered to high school teachers. An important and unique feature of all the efforts undertaken is the availability Figure 2: New Mexico Tech approach towards of materials through the web [6]. Details integrating robots in secondary education of the mobile robot kit, courses, and other robotic related efforts at New Mexico Tech are discussed in the following sections.

THE NMT MOBILE ROBOT KIT Early in the developmental stages it became evident that teaching robotics in the secondary educational system would require the inclusion of a robot kit. Many commercially available robot kits were quite suited to our needs; however, the associated cost seemed too high for under-funded New Mexico schools. Thus, in order to retain control of the feature set while constraining costs, it became necessary to design and build the kits in-house using the assistance of university students. A powerful micro-controller would be required to provide a migration path to more sophisticated applications; furthermore, a rugged platform would be necessary given the intended audience. The following base-set of features were decided upon: - A sophisticated NMT Motorola HC12 based controller board, - Two quality DC gearhead motors, - A 12volt lead-acid battery, - Three infrared proximity sensors, - Detailed online assembly and user guides, - Solid aluminum construction, and - Polarized and locking connectors throughout. The kit, shown in Figure 3, is based on a two-tier design primarily to provide electrical noise isolation for the low- Figure 3: The 3rd generation NMT mobile robotics kit. power components from the highpower electronics and to offer easy access to the sensors and other electronics. The ample 2Ahr lead-acid battery is accompanied by a wall charger thereby providing a safe mechanisim for insitu recharging of the battery. The compact yet expandable layout results in a simplified overall design. One of the primary objectives guiding the choices made in designing the NMT robot kit was to make the kit robust, reliable, and modular to accommodate a wide variety of applications. To provide a minimum “ramp-up” time on the learning curve executable code for testing individual subsystems (e.g. proximity sensors, motors, tone-decoder, digital input/output, wall following, ...) is provided on-line along with detailed assembly instructions and a user manual. A complete web site has been constructed [6] to support the NMT robot kit effort. This site provides sufficiently detailed information to allow a typical high-school student to build the robot independently. To promote further exploration an additional suite of modular subsystems are available with supporting code samples. These optional modules include motor upgrades (encoders), opto-reflective sensors, high-current motor drivers, a microphone and tone decoder, memory-expansion with a PLD, and more.

CURRICULAR OBJECTIVES AND GOALS Outreach efforts began with a summer course taught to junior-high and high school students over a six-week period. The course curriculum was designed to be challenging with the objective of taking the students from a limited background in robotics to working groups able to construct functioning small mobile robots. Highlights of the curriculum are presented below with examples of how theoretical topics were combined with practical exercises. 1.

Project/Robot Objective • clarify overall project objective and breakdown the project into manageable sub-problems 2. Robot Designs • typical components such as chassis, sensors, computer, actuators, and power • component location based upon mechanical and electrical isolation and center of gravity 3. Teaming • select team members with varied backgrounds and interests to address subsystems • members should work in areas of strengths and interests 4. Analog Circuits • AC/DC, voltage, current, resistors, capacitors, inductors, fuses, batteries, switches, regulators, and circuit diagrams • experiments include introduction to oscilloscopes and multimeters through measuring resistances, switch and fuse continuity, battery voltages, regulator voltages, and generated signals 5. Digital Circuits • binary number system and discrete logic 6. DC Gearmotors • basic physics of DC motors and gears • motor selection via power calculations • motor drivers (analog and digital) 7. Wiring and Circuit Board Construction • copper circuit board construction process including use of locking and polarized connectors • experiments include soldering wire connections, crimping connector pins, adding shrink tubing, and checking continuity • assist instructors with soldering components onto h-bridge and tone decoder circuit boards • test drive motors via h-bridge board, battery, and function generator 8. Sensors • light sensor intensity for fire detection • IR triangulation for distance • reflective white line sensor • sound detection through microphone NMT • experiments involve testing and calibrating Faculty sensors by recording values in spread sheet, plotting values, and some level of curve fitting Practicing 9. Microcontrollers Engineers • architecture, analog and digital interfaces 10. C Programming Undergraduate • flow charts and language syntax Engineering • review sample navigation functions provided Students • experiments include compiling, downloading, and Mentors running example programs followed by writing Teachers various programs to perform specified functions Students 11. Robot Navigation • maze solving and wall following approaches • experiments involve programming robot to Figure 4: Diagram of combined teaching effort perform specified tasks

The challenges of teaching the in-depth curriculum required a large combined effort from many levels, as shown in Figure 4. New Mexico Tech faculty coordinated the effort, and along with practicing engineers oversaw course progression. Senior undergraduate engineering students took over the day-to-day lecturing and were assisted by teachers, highschool students serving as mentors, and the faculty and engineers who rotated in daily. As expected, the success of the course hinged on the undergraduate engineering students who took the lead role; therefore, it was imperative that these students be chosen carefully. Fortunately, all NMT electrical engineering students take the junior design course at New Mexico Tech wherein they design, build, and present on two occasions their own robots capable of competing in the Trinity College Fire Fighting Home Robot Contest. Our positive experience using contests to teach design to engineering juniors has been similar to others [7] with students gaining critical technical design and communication skills. This background has proven invaluable to the secondary education efforts as the undergraduate engineering students are invited to assist with the courses. In the end, the summer course offered to the combined audience of junior-high and highschool students was a success with all groups completing operational fire-fighting robots. Response from the students, school administration, and families was positive with the same course and a follow on course requested the next year. Complete course information is available on a website [6] as a sample curriculum for others who wish to undertake similar pursuits. After completing the robotics course for secondary education students, it became apparent that the manpower required to reach a large number of students through this type of course would not be feasible. Thus, a Masters of Science in Teaching course for schoolteachers was proposed as a mechanism to reach more classrooms and have a wider and longer-term impact. Following the basic curriculum used for the students, a two-week course was provided to teachers in which they not only learned about robotics and the associated technologies through construction of the mobile robot kit, but also gathered ideas for incorporating this knowledge into their schools [6]. Follow up contact with participates showed many of them utilizing some aspect of robotics in their offerings with the most prevalent use being in computer courses to teach programming. The course is documented on the web [6] to provide the teachers a continued reference. FUTURE AND RECENT DIRECTIONS To extend the resource base available to the New Mexico high schools the outreach program which begun at NMT is being extended to include two other in state universities (University of New Mexico and New Mexico Highlands University). This partnering between the three universities has lead to many new opportunities such as: NM RoboRave [8]: A New Mexico wide high school level robot contest, which was begun in Fall 2001. The Spring 2002 contest will be hosted at NMT. A New Outreach Project: Funding was secured to donate NMT robot kits to twenty NM high schools with the requirement that they participate in the RoboRave contest.

NASA Summer Robotics Camp: A summer camp sponsored by the NASA PURSUE program, based at the University of New Mexico, will be jointly organized for NM high school students in Summer 2002. Development of additional functionality: Students and faculty at the three universities are developing additional hardware modules (e.g. RF link, camera interface, …) and software capabilities (e.g. high-level programming environment, additional robot behaviors, …). SUMMARY New Mexico Tech’s outreach activities, based upon the NMT mobile robot kit, have proven an effective means of offering robots as applications of science, math, and computers in classrooms. Promotion of independent programs has been through a structured set of resources including curricula for secondary students and teachers, a mobile robot kit, and extensive web-based material. This effort has had an impact beyond the borders of New Mexico and the confines of continental North America and hopefully will encourage other universities to reach out to their colleagues in the secondary educational system. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors wish to express their gratitude to the Office of Institutional Development at New Mexico Tech for unwavering support of this and numerous other robotics related outreach efforts. REFERENCES [1] E. Kolberg and N. Orlev, “Robotics learning as a tool for integrating science technology curriculum in K-12 schools,” 31st Annual Frontiers in Education Conference. Impact on Engineering and Science Education Conference Proceedings, 10-13 Oct. 2001, Reno, NV, USA. [2] R. Avanzato, “Mobile robotics for freshman design, research, and high school outreach,” IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, 8-11 Oct. 2000, Nashville, TN, USA. [3] P.H. Gregson and T.A. Little, “Using Contests to Teach Design to EE Juniors,” IEEE Transactions on Education, vol. 42, (no. 3), pp. 229-232, 1999. [4] D. J. Ahlgren and I.M. Verner, “Fire-Fighting Robot International Competitions: Education Through Interdisciplinary Design,” Proceedings of International Conf. on Engineering Education, 2001, p. 7B3-1. [5] I. M. Verner, S. Waks, and E. Kolberg, “Educational robotics: an insight into systems engineering,” European Journal of Engineering Education, June 1999; vol.24, no.2, p.201-12. [6] http://www.ee.nmt.edu/~mrobokit/ [7] L. Almeida, P. Fonseca, and J.L. Azevedo, “The Micro-Rato contest: a popular approach to improve selfstudy in electronics and computer science,” IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, 8-11 Oct. 2000, Nashville, TN, USA. [8] http://www.nmroborave.com/