OXFORD, Miss. – One child’s toy is a college student’s final project.
That’s what some University of Mississippi computer science majors found as they completed a robotics class this week.
During
the semester, the students developed software for the Lego Mindstorms
NXT robots. Each student created a Hallway Explorer Robot before spring
break. At their last seminar this week, they displayed 10 more
event-responsive computer programs using the building blocks toys.
“We’re
teaching a new kind of computing that listens for events to happen,”
said Yixin Chen, assistant professor of computer science. “We’re
teaching students to write programs to respond to their environment.
These toys allow us to demonstrate to students a one-to-one
relationship between their abstractions and the concrete, where they
can observe the effects of their programming and develop solutions to
socially relevant problems.”
The robots, dubbed MyBots, all have names and perform a variety of demonstrations, including operating a forklift, mapping, playing the piano and drawing. One robot even played the Connect Four game against human competitors.
The Lego Mindtstorms robots, which were included in kits purchased at Lego Education for $280 each, are fully functioning and programmable, offering a low-cost alternative for teaching. A large research robot can cost as much as $30,000, Chen said.
“With the financial support of the computer science department, the Adler Endowment and a mini-grant from the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, we were able to provide each student a Lego kit and sensors to work with,” he said.
“From the beginning, we developed all of our programming based upon the robot used in the very first workshop,” said Chris Reichley, a master’s student from St. Louis, Mo. “It’s been fun and challenging coming up with adaptations for the new model.”
Far from a remote control toy, the Lego robot features light sensors, touch sensors and two motors, allowing it to respond to events and make its own decisions based on programming information input by its operator.
“We were all looking for an original idea,” said Robert Decurtins, a junior from Olive Branch.
Another plus, Chen said, is that the toy robots are virtually indestructible.
Lego robots have been used in any level of college computing classes and beyond.
“My Autonomous Mobile Boolean Emissary Robot (or AMBER) could be used one day for surveying areas where it may not be safe or too small for human beings to go,” Reichley said.
Videos of UM students demonstrating their MyBots are available at http://www.youtube.com/olemisscs/
For more information about the Department of Computer and Information Science, see http://www.cs.olemiss.edu .