Using a web service, mobile device and low-cost robot to teach computer science and engineering

Currently, robots are being used as teaching tools and can be found in K-12 and college classrooms. The primary appeal associated with employing robots is that they tend to capture the attention of the target audience and thereby facilitate the learning process. While there are numerous robotic kits on the market today, few can be used to teach both high-level concepts in computer science and engineering as well as low-level concepts in a K-12 environment and those that are capable, are more expensive. In this paper we propose an affordable setup of a basic software and hardware framework to accomplish this interaction. Specifically, the overall system architecture, low-cost robot, Web service and mobile device software will be the topics of interest in this paper.