Principles and experiences in using legos to teach behavioral robotics

This paper describes the application of lego mindstorms and vision command kits as a cost- and time-effective means of reinforcing behavioral robotics principles to students of different disciplines with limited programming skills. As part of a course in robotics, senior undergraduate and first year graduate students in computer science, engineering, and psychology have worked in small groups building and programming robots to perform a variety of tasks, ultimately developing robots for a mock search and rescue operation. This paper discusses the pedagogical principles, the exercises, student reactions, shortcomings, and lessons learned. The laboratory exercises were used to teach students in two locations (Tampa, Florida and Reykjavik, Iceland) with positive student reviews. The laboratory manual is available to teachers by request, along with the instructor's guide to Introduction to AI robotics. Based on our experiences, we recommend their use.