Materials For Enabling Hands-On Robotics and STEM Education: Maja J Matari C, Nathan Koenig, and David Feil-Seifer
Materials For Enabling Hands-On Robotics and STEM Education: Maja J Matari C, Nathan Koenig, and David Feil-Seifer
Approach
In the last few years, we have been working with K-12
schools to help them develop robotics programs and, in the
process, to learn what their real needs are (6). In collabo-
ration with middles school teachers, we developed robotics
courses as well as science courses that use robotics to teach
middle school-level science; all lesson plans are freely avail- Figure 1: iRobot Roomba vacuum cleaner robot.
able from: http://robotics.usc.edu/interaction/k-12/ Most re-
cently we have begun development of similar materials for
elementary school-aged students.
However, working with one school at a time, while
highly productive, is a slow means of making broad impact.
To address as many teachers as possible, we have teamed
up with iRobot Corporation (http://www.irobot.com)
and Microsoft Research (http://research.microsoft.com)
to develop a detailed workbook of robot program-
ming exercises with illustrations and solutions.
The workbook is freely distributed on the web, at:
http://roboticsprimer.sourceforge.net/workbook Parts
of the workbook have been made available as of January
2007, and the rest will be available with the publication of
an accompanying textbook, described next.
The workbook is a stand-alone resource, but is written to
dovetail with “The Robotics Primer” by M. Matarić, an in-
troductory robotics textbook being published in mid 2007.
The textbook is aimed at K-12 teacher training, high school
and early university students, as well as any reader interested Figure 2: iRobot Create programmable robot.
in a first pedagogical reading on the subject. The textbook
fills a currently open niche that will serve the K-12 popula-
tion: a pedagogical introduction to robotics that covers the Hardware and Software
key concepts and principles but is written in a fully accessi-
ble style. Two limiting factors for placing robots in a classroom setting
To produce a robot programming workbook, as a stand- are hardware cost and experience in constructing a robot.
alone resource or as a companion to a textbook, one must These two factors can usually be considered reciprocal; a
commit to a robot platform. We aimed for a real robot that high hardware cost correlates to low construction experi-
was affordable and generally available. This lead us to the ence, and vice versa. Our goal is to minimize both the hard-
selection of the iRobot Roomba (4) and Create (4) platforms, ware cost and prerequisite construction knowledge, so that
which can be purchased at an academic discount for approx- students and teachers can have ready access to a robot plat-
imately 150 USD. The workbook contains exercises with form.
(a) Gumstix Linux computer (b) Robostix expansion board (c) Wifistix expansion board
Figure 4: The Gumstix is a Linux computer based on the Intel Xscale processor. The Robostix contains an Atmel microcon-
troller with break-out ports, and the Wifistix provides wireless communications.
USD to 350.00 USD. All models are built on the same mo-
bile platform; we used the lowest cost version.
Figure 3: iRobot Roomba vacuum cleaner robot attached to
The second robot is very similar to the Roomba. In fact it
a Gumstix computer.
is essentially the Roomba without the vacuum, and is called
the iRobot Create, shown in Figure 2. This recently released
platform has a few advantages over the Roomba. With-
One can define two general categories of robots, pre- out the vacuum cleaner, the battery life on the Create lasts
built and do-it-yourself (DIY). Pre-built robots are gener- longer, and the cost is lower, at 130.00 USD. In place of the
ally found in research labs, industry, and the military. All of vacuum cleaner is a payload bay convenient for attaching
these places have significant funds with which to purchase various electronics. The most important difference is that
such fully constructed robots, which can cost upwards of the Create can be programmed using the iRobot Command
3,000.00 USD, a price point considered beyond the reach of Module, a unit that plugs into the Create and contains a mi-
most users. crocontroller and numerous external ports. The Create and
The alternative, DIY robots, are much less expensive than Command Module combination can be used for many of the
their pre-built counterparts. These robots tend to cost less workbook exercises. However, the limited amount of com-
than 1,000.00 USD, and in many cases less than 500.00 putation on the Command Module does somewhat limit the
USD. This price range is more suitable for high school and number of exercises that can be completed.
undergraduate classrooms. However, the DIY robots require In contrast to the Create, the Roomba lacks an accessible
significant experience with hardware and electronics. They onboard computer. Adding such a computer involves satis-
are not a suitable starting point for robotics education as fying several constraints: it must be low cost, small enough
many students and teachers may not have the required know- to place on top of the Roomba, have minimal power require-
how. ments, and have expansion ports to add additional sensors
Our approach is to use a low-cost pre-built mobile robot and motors. These specifications are satisfied by the Gum-
in conjunction with open-source software. Two such mobile stix (3) computer, and the Robostix (3) and Wifistix (3) ex-
robots, produced by iRobot Corporation, meet our needs. pansion boards. The Gumstix computer can also be used
The first is the popular autonomous vacuum cleaning robot on the Create in place of the Command Module. iRobot
called the iRobot Roomba, shown in Figure 1. The Roomba openly encourages third party development and has released
comes in various models, with prices ranging from 150.00 the API specifications for the Roomba and Create. With
this API, a user can control the Roomba’s motors and ac- alternative to Linux. The Microsoft Robotics Studio takes
cess its sensors. Consequently, with the Gumstix and either a service-oriented approach toward robot control. It lever-
the Roomba or Create, all the exercises in the workbook can ages the .NET framework for asynchronous programming,
be completed. real-time robot monitoring, the creation of modular services,
The Gumstix, shown in Figure 4(a), is a very small (80x20 and a 3D dynamic robot simulator. This Studio will create a
mm) Linux computer. There exist various versions of the comfortable learning environment for students accustomed
Gumstix; we chose the Connex 200xm, whose mother-board to the Windows environment, while still exposing the core
utilizes a 200 MHz Intel Xscale CPU, 16 MB flash memory, challenges associated with controlling robots.
and has two expansion ports. The Gumstix Connex 200xm
is currently priced at 109.00 USD. Summary
The Robostix, see Figure 4(b), is an expansion card that We have argued that barriers to making robotics ac-
attaches directly to one of the ports on the Gumstix. With cessible to students at all levels, as well as educa-
the Robostix we can attach numerous sensors (e.g., infra red, tors, include the lack of availability of readily accessi-
sonar, and heat) and servos, and control the Roomba/Create. ble robot programming exercises with solutions, which
The board is 80x26 mm in size, equipped with a Atmel AT- operate on affordable robot platforms. Toward address-
Mega128 microcontroller, and costs 49.00 USD. The Ro- ing this problem, we have developed a public-domain
bostix provides a low cost solution for expanding the capa- free robot programming workbook, found on the Web at:
bilities of the Roomba/Create. http://roboticsprimer.sourceforge.net/workbook
The Wifistix, shown in Figure 4(c), is another expan- The workbook is a stand-alone guided peagogical re-
sion card that connects to the second Gumstix port. As sources for teachers, students, and hobbyists, based on the
its name implies, the Wifistix provides the Gumstix with iRobot Roomba and Create robot platforms. The workbook
802.11g wireless communications. With this expansion is also designed to dovetail with “The Robotics Primer”, an
board, desktop PCs and laptops can communicate and con- introductory robotics textbook by M. Matarić, which is itself
trol the Roomba/Create. This board is 80x20 mm in size, targeted to the same audience and requires no background
uses the Marvell 88W8385 module and open-source driver prerequisites.
for communication, and costs 79.00 USD.
A small set of miscellaneous hardware is necessary to Acknowledgments
power the Gumstix and connect it to the Roomba/Create.
The Roomba/Create utilizes a TTY mini-DIN port for serial The workbook development was supported by iRobot Cor-
communication, and the Robostix uses a TTY 4-pin serial poration. The integration of the Microsoft Robotics Studio
header. Connecting the two devices requires either making a into the workbook was supported by Microsoft Research.
custom cable, or using a set of off-the-shelf parts. Consistent
with our philosophy of accessibility, we used the off-the- References
shelf parts method. Starting with Robostix, an Acroname [1] Botball. http://www.botball.org/, 2006.
serial interface connection, part S13-SERIAL-INT-CONN, [2] FIRST. http://www.usfirst.org/, 2006.
is connected to a 4-pin serial header. This is followed by
a Roo232 (7) level shifter and mini-DIN cable which is [3] Gumstix. http://www.gumstix.com, 2007.
plugged into the Roomba/Create. The Roo232 level shifter [4] iRobot. http://www.irobot.com, 2007.
and mini-DIN cable are available from RoboDynamics and [5] LEGO. http://www.legoeducation.com, 2006.
cost a total of 41.94 USD. The Acroname serial interface
costs 11.75 USD. Finally, the battery pack holds four AAA [6] Maja J Matarić. Robotics education for all ages. In
batteries and is available from Acroname for 3.50 USD. Fig- AAAI Spring Symposium on Accessible, Hands-on AI
ure 3 shows the Roomba/Create and Gumstix combination. and Robotics Education, Palo Alto, CA, March 22-24
The total hardware cost for the materials, consisting of a 2004.
mobile robot base and an extensible general-purpose Linux [7] RoboDynamics. http://roombadevtools.com, 2007.
computer described above is 335.19 USD, as shown and
[8] I. Werry, K. Dautenhahn, B. Ogden, and W. Harwin.
itemized in Table 1. This configuration was chosen not Can social interaction skills be taught by a social agent?
only to minimize cost and use off-the-shelf parts, but also the role of a robotics mediator in autism therapy. Lecture
to maintain compatibility with Player, an open-source net-
Notes in Computer Science, 2117:57–74, 2001.
work server for robot control. Player is widely used in the
research, education, and hobby communities for robot con-
trol, sensor processing, and communication. It has been in
constant development for over five years, and can be consid-
ered one the most robust and feature-rich robot development
libraries. Support for the Roomba/Create API is incorpo-
rated into Player, including drivers for controlling the Ro-
bostix break-out ports.
This workbook also offers the newly developed Microsoft
Robotics Studio (http://msdn.microsoft.com/robotics) as an