Seven big ideas in robotics, and how to teach them

Robotics is widely recognized as an interdisciplinary mixture of engineering and computer science, but the latter compo-nent is not well represented at many undergraduate institu-tions. The sophisticated technologies that underlie percep-tion, planning, and control mechanisms in modern robots need to be made accessible to more computer science under-graduates. Following the curriculum design principles of Wiggins and McTighe (Understanding by Design, 2nd Ed.), I present seven big ideas in robotics that can fit together in a one semester undergraduate course. Each is introduced with an essen-tial question, such as “How do robots see the world? ” The answers expose students to deep concepts in computer sci-ence in a context where they can be immediately demon-strated. Hands-on labs using the Tekkotsu open source soft-ware framework and robots costing under $1,000 facilitate mastery of these important ideas. Courses based on parts of an early version of this curriculum are being offered at Carnegie Mellon and several other universities