Meeting educational objectives and outcomes through robotics education

Formal assessment of learning outcomes in accordance with ABET EC2000 criteria is a major trend in undergraduate engineering education. In EC2000, engineering programs are assessed, in part, by measuring the abilities of a program's graduates against the program's published educational objectives and learning outcomes, including the ABET basic outcomes a-k. A second major trend is toward a "learning by doing" curriculum that engages students in design projects early in the undergraduate program. This approach motivates students by engaging them in exciting engineering projects, teaching theoretical concepts in a "just in time" fashion. The design of autonomous mobile robots is an ideal activity for a "learning by doing" curriculum in which student teams create complex mechatronic systems by applying principles of physical science, mathematics, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and computer science. In addition, the opportunity to participate in robotics competitions allows students to evaluate designs, learn from other teams, and win rewards. This paper discusses robot design as a medium for meeting core ABET outcomes in three curricular areas at Trinity College: (1) an engineering design course for first-year students; (2) a robotics study team involving students from all four college years, and (3) the senior design project program. The paper presents examples of student designs including autonomous robots, which complete in the Trinity College fire-fighting home robot contest and the AUVSI international ground vehicle competition (IGVC).