Title :
The Infinity Project brings DSP brains to robots in the classroom
Author :
Christensen, Marc P. ; Douglas, Scott C. ; Wood, Sally L. ; Kitts, Christopher ; Mahler, Ted
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng., Southern Methodist Univ., Dallas, TX, USA
Abstract :
The Infinity Project and BEST Robotics, Inc. have teamed up to bring "smarter" robots into high school and college classrooms. Through the use of Hyperception/National Instruments\´ Visual Application Builder (VAB) and a SPEEDY-33 DSP kit, high school students can rapidly construct and program a robot with capabilities that exceed the radio-controlled robots in after-school competitions today. At the college level, we describe the methods and outcomes of joint robot design projects that include first-year college students taking introductory electrical engineering and mechanical engineering courses at Southern Methodist University. The students formed interdisciplinary design groups to build robots to compete against one another in a "putt-putt" golf competition. These DSP-based prototype robots were developed using the same Infinity Project tools and technology that support future annual BEST Robotics competitions.
Keywords :
educational courses; electronic engineering education; mechanical engineering; robots; student experiments; DSP kit; DSP-based prototype robots; Infinity Project tools/technology; VAB; electrical engineering courses; interdisciplinary design groups; mechanical engineering courses; robot design projects; robotics; visual application builder; Digital signal processing; Educational institutions; H infinity control; Instruments; Intelligent robots; Laboratories; Mechanical engineering; Power engineering and energy; Prototypes; Robot kinematics;
Conference_Titel :
Digital Signal Processing Workshop, 2004 and the 3rd IEEE Signal Processing Education Workshop. 2004 IEEE 11th
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-8434-2
DOI :
10.1109/DSPWS.2004.1437917
