Analysis of the Use of LEGO Mindstorms in CSC 130

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Analysis of the Use of LEGO Mindstorms in CSC 130

• Shannon PollardJoel Hollingsworth

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Use of Mindstorms

• Labs in CSC 130 are once a week, used as an
  opportunity to apply programming skills.
• Some labs are to program the robots to do various
  tasks
• Uses Java, Eclipse with Lejos plugin
• All labs currently use the Rover Mindstorm
  configuration

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Lego Lab Examples

• Basic movements and random movements
• Use light sensor to follow a black track
• Play music
• Use bumpers to navigate around obstacles
• Trace shapes
• Simon Says

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Objectives

• Use of physical objects requires students to
  consider practical issues like traction and
  timing
• Gives introductory students a peek at upper-level
  concepts threads, exceptions, event-driven
  programming
• Make labs more fun and interesting

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Anecdotal Results

• Students like using the robots
• Often hear students talk about playing with
  robots when they are actually programming
• Students name or otherwise personalize their lab
  robots
• Labs are challenging
• Students heard to say that robot labs are more
  difficult than non-robot labs
• Robot labs introduce a whole new problem with
  debugging (no standard output)
• Students are faced with programs that work
  differently when they run them on different
  robots or on different terrains.

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Drawbacks

• High maintenance
• Question remains of how many labs should be robot
  labs versus traditional labs
• Lack of existing lab ideas