Bryn Mawr College

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A Hands-on Exploration of Educational
RoboticsPersonal Robots in Education

• Doug Blank
• Bryn Mawr College
• Institute for Personal Robots in Education

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Bryn Mawr College

• Founded 1885
• Located on a 135-acre suburban campus outside of
  Philadelphia
• 1,300 all-women undergraduates
• 130 Full-time faculty, 3 in CS

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Institute for Personal Robots in Education

• Formed in July 2006
• Georgia Institute of Technology, Bryn Mawr
  College, and Microsoft Research
• Created to explore and foster the appropriate use
  of robots in the CS1 and CS2 courses to help the
  growing crisis
• Develop hardware, software, and curricular
  materials to this end
• www.roboteducation.org

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The Personal Robot Niche

• Personal Robot
• Low-cost, small, self-contained, fit in backpack
  (or lunchbox), buy at bookstore
• Focus on engaging computation
• Avoid mechanical and electrical engineering
  topics
• Robot as a device and tool
• Inviting to non-traditional students
• Exploit the power of the PC
• Wireless

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The Personal Robot Niche
One robot per student Robots can help make
computer science personal.
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Key concepts for comparing robots

• Price
• Capability
• Size, weight
• Odometry, dead reckoning
• Range sensors (sonar, infrared)
• Camera and image processing
• Analog signal vs. Digital signal
• On-board vs. Off-board Processing
• Appropriateness to task

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Personal Robots for Educations

• Aibo Sony (discontinued)
• AmigoBot MobileRobots
• Webots Cyberbotics
• Khepera K-Team, RoadNarrows
• E-puck GCtronic
• Hemisson K-Team, RoadNarrows
• Roomba/Create iRobot
• SRV1 Surveyor
• Boe-Bot Parallax
• Mindstorms NXT Lego
• Scribbler Parallax

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Personal Robot Landscape
Webots
Khepera
AmigoBot
Aibo
E-puck
Price
Hemisson
SRV1
Boe-Bot
NXT
Create
Scribbler
Capabilities
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Personal Robots for Educations

• Aibo 2500 - 3000 on Ebay
• AmigoBot 1500, plus analog video equipment
• Webots 240 student, 3825 professional
• Khepera 2000, plus analog video equipment
• E-puck 700, 3 for 1975, 1 lb
• Hemisson 788, 1 lb
• Roomba/Create 130, 180, 230, 6 lb.
• SRV1 375, then 295, 3 lb.
• Boe-Bot 110 - 150, 3.43 lb.
• Mindstorms NXT 300, 3 lb.
• Scribbler 60 - 200, 2.23 lb.

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Personal Robot Landscape
Webots
Khepera
AmigoBot
Aibo
E-puck
Price
Hemisson
SRV1
Boe-Bot
NXT
Create
Scribbler
Capabilities
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IPRE Robot Kit, prototype
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Myro Overview
Bluetooth Serial Transmitter/ Receiver
Myro
USB Bluetooth Dongle
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Overview

• Scribbler robot
• Bluetooth Serial Adaptor has already been setup
  and given a unique name
• USB Bluetooth Dongle
• Just plug it in, and select your Scribbler
• Myro Software
• Run install.bat on the CDROM and it will install
  Python and other libraries (95MB)
• OR Just boot off of the CD

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Editing Environment (IDLE)
Start Python
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Getting started

• gtgtgt from myro import
• Myro, (c) 2006 Institute for Personal Robots in
  Education
• See http//www.roboteducation.org/ for more
  information
• Version 1.0.2, Revision 1.99, ready!
• gtgtgt robot Scribbler(com4)
• Waking robot from sleep...
• Hello, I'm Scribby!
• gtgtgt robot.beep(1, 800)
• gtgtgt robot.joyStick()
• gtgtgt robot.joyStick(1)
• gtgtgt D

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Functional Interface Movement

• initialize(com4)
• turnLeft(value)
• turnRight(value)
• forward(value)
• backward(value)
• stop()
• values are between 0 and 1 and represent
• power or speed

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Functional Interface Movement

• turnLeft(value, time)
• turnRight(value, time)
• forward(value, time)
• backward(value, time)
• values are between 0 and 1 and represent
• power or speed, time is in seconds

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Movement Interface, Advanced

• translate(value)
• rotate(value)
• move(tvalue, rvalue)
• values are between -1 and 1 and
• represent speed and direction
• rotate -1 to right, 1 to left
• translate -1 backwards, 1 forwards

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Functional Interface Sensors

• getLight(position)
• getLine(position)
• getStall()
• getIR(position)
• getInfo() returns dictionary
• getAll() returns dictionary
• get(item, position)
• get(light, left)
• get(stall)

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Functional Interface Sounds

• beep(duration, freq1)
• beep(duration, freq1, freq2)
• speak(Hello world!)
• getVoices()
• setVoice(name)

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Looping constructs

• for seconds in timer(5)
• forward(.7)
• wait(1)
• turnLeft(.7)
• wait(1)
• while timeRemaining(5)
• forward(.7, 1)
• turnLeft(.7, 1)

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Looping constructs

• while timeRemaining(5)
• forward(.7, 1)
• turnLeft(.7, 1)

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Chat (IM) Interface

• c1 Chat(sarah, password)
• c1.send(joe, Hi, whats up?)
• c2 Chat(joe, sEcrEt)
• c2 c2.receive()
• (sara_at_myro.roboteducation.org', Hi, whats
  up?')

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Chat Robot Remote Control

• gtgtgt robot Scribbler()
• gtgtgt robot.setName(Arnold)
• gtgtgt robot.initializeRemoteControl("mypassword")
• gtgtgt robot.processRemoteControlLoop()
• on a computer, far, far away
• gtgtgt chat Chat("myname", passwerd")
• gtgtgt chat.send(Arnold", "robot.turnLeft(.4)")
• gtgtgt chat.receive()

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gtgtgt simulator()
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Python

• Looks like pseudo-code
• Indentation matters
• Object system built on top of functions
• Support for functional programming
• Large collection of libraries
• Interactive
• Can be easily integrated with other low-level
  languages (via SWIG)

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Python

• def function(arg1, arg2)
• print arg1, arg2
• return arg1 arg2
• class Classname(C1, C2)
• def __init__(self, arg1, arg2)
• self.args arg1, arg2
• def method(self)
• return self.args0 self.args1
• gtgtgt function(1, 2)
• 12
• gtgtgt o Classname(1, 2)
• gtgtgt o.method(1, 2)
• 3

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Security Guard Example

• from myro import
• robot Scribbler()
• vals 0 for i in range(100)
• calibration
• for i in range(100)
• valsi robot.get("light", "left")
• avg sum(vals)/100.0 securing perimeter!
• within some tolerance
• while abs(robot.get("light", "left") - avg) lt 50
  
• wait(1)
• intruder alert!
• while 1
• robot.beep(1, 1000)
• robot.beep(1, 500)

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Robots in the classroom
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USB Bluetooth Dongle

• Insert into a USB slot
• After drivers install, click on Bluetooth icon
  and select Open Bluetooth Settings
• Turn on Scribbler
• Click on Add, and check My device is ready to
  be found
• Select Use the passkey from the documentaion
  (1234)
• Note Outgoing COM Port

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Installation

• install.bat from the CDROM will install
• Python 2.4
• Text-to-speech wrapper
• Sound abstractions
• Serial Port abstractions
• Chat (IM) abstractions
• Myro API and simulator

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Future Myro

• Fall 2007
• Vision!
• Spring 2008
• Reimplement in .NET/Mono
• Allow flexibility in languages
• Allow speed where necessary (vision)
• Gyro
• Utilize Microsofts Robotics Studio
• 3D Simulator
• Pathway to advanced robotics
• GUI-based control interface
• CS2 Robotic Arm and Camera

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Surveyor SRV1
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Scribbler with IPRE vision/Bluetooth board
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Gyro
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Pyro, Python Robotics

• PyroRobotics.org
• Designed for advanced CS students
• Ability to do PhD topics easily as senior
  projects
• Not appropriate for CS1
• Provides a pathway to advanced robotics

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Servers Robots and Simulators
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Further information

• www.roboteducation.org
• blog.roboteducation.org
• myro.roboteducation.org
• pyrorobotics.org

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Robots in the classroom They are coming!