The Infinity Project brings DSP brains to robots in the classroom

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.