Behavior-based robotics programming for a mobile robotics ECE course using the CEENBoT mobile robotics platform

Behavior-based robotics is a novel approach to robotic programming whereby multiple behaviors execute in parallel using a multilayer architecture, organized by priority. However, in certain architectures, such as the subsumption architecture pioneered by Rodney Brooks, only one such behavior can be active at a time, requiring their coordination. Supporting such architectures requires hardware/software resources for multithreaded support for behaviors to execute concurrently. This makes behavior-based programming inaccessible to small educational robotics platforms usually powered by a uniprocessor (single-threaded) execution model. In this paper, we present an approach employed for an introductory Mobile Robotics course at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln that allows our students to both learn and implement behavior-based robotic programming using the C language on a uniprocessor-based mobile robotics platform known as the CEENBoT. This allows students to learn about robot programming using physical, situated robots, using a valuable language employed in embedded systems, supporting common goals of ECE programs, instead of relying on uncommon languages that have fallen into disuse and are quickly becoming obsolete. Results obtained from end-of-semester surveys are shown to demonstrate that students value the behavior-based elements of the course above other unique features it has to offer.