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February 15, 2002

Robots, The Next Generation . . .

By Charles Parham and Mary Ann Dassatti

Program them to play golf or drive race cars. Four exciting robotics packages challenge elementary, middle, and high school students with high-tech problem solving.

Early ed tech pioneer Seymour Papert and his students at MIT made a major contribution to educational technology when they built the first robotic turtle, a simulated reptile whose movement and activity were controlled by the then-new programming language LOGO. The turtle and the program that gave it life gradually traveled to elementary classrooms where kids had their first encounters with the power of a computer, a power that they themselves could control. Since then, hundreds of schoolchildren have learned to use programming language to send a small simulated turtle through amazing geometric journeys on a computer screen, and later software packages have used LOGO as a basis for more sophisticated, multimedia-enhanced programming.

All four of the robotics packages we review here reflect Papert's commitment to the idea that students should be commanding the computer, and not the other way around. LEGO's Robolab and the K'nex TechnoK'NEX offer programmable robot-building sets, while Educational Robot's Cye and ActivMedia's Basic Suite are preassembled units that operate with student-authored programming commands. All packages include introductory through advanced activities to exercise kids' spatial and critical-thinking skills. However, given their complexity, these programs require a substantial financial and time commitment-these aren't plug-and-play tools. But for educators who want to take computing to a powerful new arena, where motivational play yields sophisticated programming and technology skills, then consider one of these powerful offerings for teaching engineering and design.

ActivMedia Robotics Basic Suite (ActivMedia)

ActiveMedia's AmigoBot uses sonar to navigate programming commands.

ActivMedia offers a distinctive Basic Suite software package designed to work either with a pre-assembled robot or alone as a robot simulator. While we test drove only the simulation software, schools can choose from one of ActivMedia's several stand-alone robots to accompany the software, including the Pioneer 2-DXe, PeopleBot, and AmigoBot, the latter of which has the ability to store and repeat sounds on command, adding a wonderful vocal dimension to your robot.

The screen environment in Basic Suite is a large coordinate plane. The on-screen robot rests at home on point (0,0) and from there can be moved in any direction. The grid provides a scaled metric platform onto which kids can transfer measurements of an actual or imagined area with text labels (like sofa or door) and flags, which the robot can identify and navigate. Three basic travel modes offer different ways of moving a robot on the screen, ranging from simple point-and-click commands to letting the unit roam freely while responding to objects in its path, such as a desk or chair. Educators who tested the software with the preassembled robot told us the fun really starts when kids map a robot's route and test it offline. ActivMedia robots like the AmigoBot use sonar to locate where they are, so feedback will cause them to either stop when they encounter an obstacle or, when in "wander" mode, seek a new path to avoid collision. Both computer-based and real-life scenarios provide a fascinating look into the possibilities and limitations of the robot's ability to solve spatial problems.

More advanced tasks such as writing procedures for the robot require learning Colbert, a complicated programming language that lets students use forward and back commands as well as speed and direction to control the robot. Commands can then be strung together into programs that can be saved, labeled, and executed. Such complex tasks increase the learning curve and make this portion of the program less accessible to younger students but a motivating challenge for advanced middle or high school kids.

Cye (Educational Robot Company)

Cye's mobile base attaches to a wagon.

Unlike design and construction programs from K'nex and Robolab, Cye is a fully assembled robot looking for directions from a good programmer. Complete with a heavy-duty wagon that can be used to pick up messages from the office or deliver attendance rosters, Cye needs only a map and communication via a small radio transmitter to execute programmed tasks. Included with the package is the Map-N-Zap software that helps users program where Cye should move on a visual grid. Simply "point and press" on the map and Cye will move toward that line. Move to other spots on the grid and Cye will follow like a dog on a leash.

Without touch or light sensors, Cye relies completely on users to program "him" to move according to a map. The challenge is for kids to create a reasonable task for Cye, map the environment in which they want him to move, and then write a "zap" program to accomplish it. In order to map and zap, though, kids will first have to chart the environment in which Cye moves by estimating room size and obstacles like doors, exits, and furniture. Then, using the Drag and Drive feature that sets Cye in motion, young programmers get to modify their maps based on real coordinates. This is a somewhat complicated process until they get the hang of it and learn how to coordinate Cye's real location with his position on the computer screen. Once a map is drawn it can be saved, combined with other maps, and over time built into a floor plan of a larger area.

Cye is a very sophisticated piece of technical equipment, and most importantly, a true robot. However, he was not originally designed to be part of a school's technology curriculum, so support materials are still being developed. Nevertheless, the program's clearly written manual, a good teacher, and a group of interested students are enough to get this robot up and running in no time.

Robolab 1.5 (Pitsco/LEGO Dacta)

With Robolab, kids build their own robots.

LEGO brought robotics into the consumer market with the popular Mindstorms series, while the company's education arm reached into the technology classroom with the even more sophisticated, pedagogically based Robolab. Available in four sets to accommodate different learning levels-Starter Set, Team Challenge, Amusement Park, and Cities and Transportation-all versions of this full-featured design lab include programming software, LEGO pieces, gears, wheels, and motors, as well as temperature, pH, and light probes. New to this version of Robolab is the RCX, or Robot Command System, a battery-powered programmable brick not much bigger than a deck of playing cards, which serves as the foundation of all robotic models students can build.

We reviewed the Starter Set, the best choice for whole-class participation, due to its multiple RCX devices and transmitters. Students build their robots around the RCX, using gears, motors, LEGO pieces, and other materials necessary to complete their chosen task. They then write programs and "beam" them from the infrared computer link to the RCX inside the robot. Once sent to the RCX, kids can activate their robots using the program now stored inside the module. The RCX also serves as a wonderful handheld data collector with light and touch sensors (additional sensors must be purchased separately), so young programmers can increase the complexity of programmed tasks, for example, by commanding a robot to slow its speed when it enters a dark room.

Robolab software comes in both Pilot level for novices and Inventor for more experienced programmers. In each level, students work with an icon-based program language in a drag-and-drop interface to control the robot's speed and direction, motors, lights, and the transmission of information gathered from sensors. Students might, for example, build a car that uses two motors to power the wheels, with touch sensors on the front and rear bumpers. Set the car in motion, and once the RCX receives input from a pressed sensor encountering an obstacle, the program commands the motors to reverse direction and avoid hitting it. As students' skills increase, so too do programming options, eventually allowing them to create a program that moves the car through a maze.

TechnoK'NEX (K'nex Education)

The new K'nex system allows kids to craft large structures rather quickly with unique building materials that let young designers see what they're constructing and make modifications. To these materials K'nex adds motors, gears, light and touch sensors, a software component that provides tools for writing programs, and an interface box called Leonardo, which serves as the bridge between the computer and the K'nex mechanical structures. Unlike Robolab's autonomous robotic units, all programming instructions for K'nex machines are transmitted via wires linked to the Leonardo interface, leaving these student-built robots tethered to the computer. The software itself is icon based, allowing users to drag and drop icons to form a chain of instructions, from "talk to output" to "turn power off." Building command sequences is very intuitive, invites experimentation, and is easy to debug.

TechnoK'NEX organizes its curriculum into four increasingly challenging modes in which users must solve a problem by building a machine. Early activities ask kids to build a windmill to cool off a classroom, then increase in complexity. For example, students can move on to the complicated task of building a car to simulate a driving test and then maneuver the car through a series of obstacles. In the process, students must perform the difficult work of learning how to build and program their robots. They also learn how to hook up sensors and send commands directly to structures like the oscillator (a swing ride you'd find at an amusement park) or the cement mixer called the "smooth operator." As tasks increase in difficulty, students must rely on ingenuity to develop problem-solving procedures as they put their projects into action, such as managing multiple sensors and motors and using conditional programming statements such as "motor A moves car forward until light sensor encounters black object, then motor B starts and turns wheel until rotational sensor registers 90 degrees." As students increase their programming skills, they gain independence from the structure of the curriculum and can expand the creative opportunities of this rich robotics package.

Charles Parham is curriculum coordinator and Mary Ann Dassatti is a computer teacher at Smith College Campus School, Northampton, Mass.

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