Hands-on Experiments on Intelligent Behaviour for Mobile Robots

• Published in: International journal of electrical engineering & education Vol. 48; no. 1; pp. 66 - 78
• Main Authors: Cuevas, Erik, Zaldivar, Daniel, Pérez-Cisneros, Marco, Ramirez-Ortegon, Marte
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.01.2011; Sage Publications Ltd. (UK); Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Algorithms; Artificial Intelligence; Automation; Cognitive Psychology; Computer science; Computers; Core curriculum; Educational Objectives; Engineering; Environment; Experiments; Hands; Heuristics; Instructional Effectiveness; Introductory Courses; Mathematics; Noise; Probability; Programming; Resistance (Psychology); Robotics; Robotics industry; Robots; Student Motivation; Studies; Teaching Methods; Theory Practice Relationship; autonomous robotics; mobile robots; artificial intelligence; engineering curriculum
• ISSN: 0020-7209; 2050-4578
• DOI: 10.7227/IJEEE.48.1.6

In recent years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques have emerged as useful non-traditional tools for solving various engineering problems. AI has thus become an important subject in the engineering curriculum. However, the design of a balanced AI course is not a trivial task as its concepts commonly overlap with many other disciplines relating a wide number of subjects and ranging from applied approaches to more formal mathematical issues. This paper presents the use of a simple robotic platform to assist the learning of basic AI concepts. The study is guided by simple experimentation on autonomous mobile robots. The presented material has been successfully tested as an AI teaching aid in the University of Guadalajara's robotics group, yielding motivation to students, increasing enrolment and retention on robotics-related courses and eventually contributing to the development of competent computer engineers.