Programming robots teach problem solving at Tech
By Sara Greene
LITTLE ROCK — Robots - not the “Danger Will Robinson!” kind from the television series Lost in Space - but rather small disc-shaped ones, like the Roomba vacuum robot, are part of the curriculum at Arkansas Tech University this fall.
Dr. David Middleton, associate professor of computer and information science at Arkansas Tech University, received a $2,000 grant for a dozen of the discshaped Scribbler robots.
The robots can move around, play music and blink their tiny lights on and off. Programming them is fairly simple. Using a computer students select the commands for the robot from a picturemenu. By dragging and dropping the icons for the commands into a row, the students have written a program for the robots. Students then connect the robot to the computer and upload the program to the robot. After uploading the program, students push a button on the robot to make it perform the program.
Middleton said the class isn’t about programming computers or robots as much as it is about problem-solving.
“Programming a computer is just telling it what you want it to do. You have to understand the problem and think out the solution before you write code. Programming isn’t the end. It is just onepart of getting problems solved,” Middleton said.
When the students and robots meet in a few weeks, one of the problems students will tackle will be programming the robot to navigate a maze.
Middleton said students who study computer programming are often intimidated by the intense studying required. He said robot competitions, such as the Bot Bowl in which home-school students compete, is the fun side of computer programming.
In the robot lab at Arkansas Tech University, Middleton has a robot made out of LEGO construction pieces he made for Bot Bowl. It looks a little like an exploratory spacecraft with tires. A Nintendo Game Boy video-game system attached to the top acts as the computer for the small robot. Students can program the hand-held gaming device with commands it sends to the motors and gears on the robot. For example, Middleton’s yellow robot has a tiny camera mounted to the front. It can distinguish objects in its path and adjust its courseor it follow the path of a black line on a white surface. In fractions of a second the computer program tells the robot to go, but stay on the edge of the black line, even if the line curves or makes a figure 8.
Arkansas Tech University’s Department of Computer and Information Science includes three Bachelor of Science degree programs: one each in computer science, information systems and information technology. Thereis also an Associate of Science degree in information technology and a Master of Science degree in information technology. Computer science consists of designing and building special computer systems. Information systems experts use those complicated vehicles efficiently in a professional setting. Information technology professionals keep the infrastructure operating.
“Having all three majors under one umbrella is a greatbenefit to the students because there is less pressure to choose one right off the bat. All three programs start out the same,” Middleton said.
Middleton likens the different computer disciplines to the sport of car racing.
“Computer science is the engineer who builds the race car. Information systems is like the race-car driver and the information-technology people, they’re like the pit crew who can keep the car going,” Middleton said.
Arkansas Tech University is the only school in the state and one of 28 universities nationwide to receive the grant for the robots from the Institute for Personal Robots in Education, which is a cooperative effort to increase interest in computer and information science. The grant was made possible through Microsoft Research, the Georgia Tech College of Computing and Bryn Mawr College, which is a liberal arts college in Pennsylvania.
For more information about the Arkansas Tech Department of Computer and Information Science e-mail info@cs.atu.edu or visit http://cs.atu.edu or call (479) 968-0663.
This article was published Sunday, October 5, 2008.
River Valley Ozark, Pages 133, 140 on 10/05/2008
