Making use of the cognitive apprenticeship framework in an undergraduate robotics course (abstract only)

Abstract

Modern robotics are at the locus of several related disciplines including computer science, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and others. The interleaving of these disciplines within a single robotic system can make teaching the fundamentals of robotics to undergraduate students within a traditional computer science curriculum a challenging task. One way to address this challenge is with an immersive, experiential approach that exposes students to these different facets of robot design in context. This poster describes the application of the Cognitive Apprenticeship (CA) framework to an undergraduate robotics course comprising of projects that touch on several different engineering disciplines. CA techniques are used to help students gain insight and understand how contributions from a variety of domains are interwoven to build a functioning robotic system. Throughout the class, students work on teams to complete projects at different levels of abstraction using two different robot platforms. Students learn about software design and implementation by constructing reactive paradigm behaviors on a Khepera III robot in the first part of the course. Later, students construct a quadcopter UAV from a kit, handling all aspects of construction, calibration, and configuration. This work focuses on two perspectives of this course: the use of the CA framework as a structure for experiential learning and also to describe a set of projects that emphasize the interdisciplinary nature of robotics.