CS4HS Workshop, July 23, 2006

Multimedia Robots for Computer Science Education

Dr. Illah Nourbakhsh and Tom Lauwers

Center for Innovative Robotics

CS4HS Workshop, July 23, 2006

Robots as Educational Tools

CS4HS Workshop, July 23, 2006

High School Robotics Programs

CS4HS Workshop, July 23, 2006

TeRK – the Telepresence Robot Kit

• We strongly believe that robotics can be used as a tool to educate and motivate students across a wide variety of topics and ages.

• Emerging technologies are enabling us to simultaneously lower costs and increase functionality.

The Turk

A “TeRK”

CS4HS Workshop, July 23, 2006

TeRK - Capabilities

With a TeRK, you can connect:

One webcam One wireless adapter Speakers Four DC motors

Eight LEDs Eight analog sensors Sixteen servos

CS4HS Workshop, July 23, 2006

TeRK Projects

• Curricular Modules for Introduction to Computer Science

• Robot Diary

• Network Neighborhoods

• Online Community Building and Recipe Creation

CS4HS Workshop, July 23, 2006

Intro to CS Curricula

• Create curricular modules for the following CS topics: Simple I/O, Flow Control, Arrays, File read/write, and Errors and exceptions

• Modules will include robot centered assignments and activities

CS4HS Workshop, July 23, 2006

Robot Diary

• Currently engaged in participatory design sessions with middle school girls

• Design sessions will inform a future robot design that allows girls to express emotion and communicate with their friends through the robot

CS4HS Workshop, July 23, 2006

Network Neighborhoods

• Provide high school students with environmental sensors and wireless technology to deploy environmental monitoring stations

• Students will also be tasked with creating artistic public displays to express the information that their monitoring stations collect

CS4HS Workshop, July 23, 2006

Community Website and Recipes

TeRK Website

CS4HS Workshop, July 23, 2006

Teleop Demo

CS4HS Workshop, July 23, 2006

Your Turn!

• Modify the sample program to cause the robot to react to certain colors

• How the robot reacts is up to you, but we suggest something obvious.

• Doing nothing is not an acceptable reaction.

CS4HS Workshop, July 23, 2006

Additional Information

Contact Tom Lauwers for questions about curricula or sample programs:

tlauwers@andrew.cmu.edu

Check the TeRK website every few months – we are actively generating new recipes, software,

and curricula:

http://www.terk.ri.cmu.edu