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On Saturday, 11 December 2004, we will make our 10th straight appearance at the Cleveland Great Lakes Science Center. Click here to learn more about the Egg Hunt. |
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This course uses LEGO beams, plates, gears, motors, a 68HC11 microcontroller board programmed in C, and various sensors to construct autonomous (i.e., self-contained, no direct human control) robots. The first half of the course is structured exercises in practical programming, LEGO mechanics, sensor principles, and software design, all presented with a biological slant--we consider autonomous robots to be model systems for the study of animal behavior. The second half of the course is spent designing robots which can compete in a public Egg Hunt competition.
The 375 course is intended for undergraduates. The 475 course is intended for graduate students and advanced undergraduates; there is extra coursework (7 written lab reports, a final 10-page design paper, extra exercises, outside readings) required for graduate credit.
There are no formal prerequisites. We will teach you everything you need to know.
Fall 2004 is the 19th semester of Autonomous Robotics; 522 students have taken the course through Fall 2004.
On Saturday, 11 December 2004, we will make our 10th straight appearance at the Cleveland Great Lakes Science Center.
Click here to learn more about the Egg Hunt.
See hi-res color photos of the past Egg Hunt robots.
Watch some of the past 18 Egg Hunts!
Our article, Using autonomous robotics to teach science and engineering, appeared in Communications of the ACM 42(6), 85-92 (June 1999). In Adobe Acrobat PDF format.
Tag, you're IT, an article about a related summer course for secondary school teachers and their students, Inquiry-Based Approaches to Autonomous Robotics (BIOL 803), developed by Dr. Rich Drushel, was featured on the Howard Hughes Medical Institute website in July-August 2003. In Adobe Acrobat PDF format.
Autonomous Robotics was so popular that a Waiting List system was used to get into the course.
Spring 2005
Waiting List
not available;
course
will not be offered
No extra sessions currently scheduled.
12:00 noon-3:00 P.M. Aaron Franczyk 3:00-7:00 P.M. Nathan Wedge 7:00-9:00 P.M. Sam Liberman 9:00 P.M.-12:00 midnight Rich Drushel
The MIT 6.270 Course, the original LEGO robotics course by Fred Martin, Randy Sargent, Anne Wright, P.K. Oberoi, et al., which directly inspired our course.
The Art of LEGO Design by Fred Martin. In Adobe Acrobat PDF format.
The Handy Board Home Page, which details the commercially-available descendant of the original 6.270 computer board designed by Fred Martin.
Gleason Research, an excellent and highly-recommended vendor of the MIT Handy Board.
The LEGO Mindstorms Home Page, where you can see LEGO's own version of programmable robots, the RCX Programmable Brick.
Robotic Design Studio, a multidisciplinary LEGO robotics course at Wellesley College, developed by Franklyn Turbak and Robbie Berg.
The Robot Laboratory Resource Kit for Teaching Artificial Intelligence, created by Deepak Kumar and Lisa Meeden.
Autonomous Robotics at CWRU began in Spring 1995, made possible by a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
General Motors Corporation, Parker Hannifin Corporation, PCBexpress, the Ohio Space Grant Consortium, The Case School of Engineering, and the Case Alumni Association have been prior sponsors.
Last updated Wednesday, 24 January 2007, 2:19 P.M., by RFD
