The paper proposes lab work and student competitions based on the LEGO NXT Mindstorms kits and standard LabVIEW. The goal of this combination is to stimulate design and experimentation with real hardware and representative software in courses where mobile robotics is adopted as a motivating platform to introduce mechatronics competencies. Basic LabVIEW examples are proposed for three case-study laboratory practices. These are implemented with the NXT Toolkit and the NXT Direct Command programming libraries for standalone and remote execution, respectively. The application of this instructional material has been tested in two different experiences with senior undergraduate engineering students. A description of the courses as well as an assessment of student results are also included.

Using LEGO NXT Mobile Robots With LabVIEW for Undergraduate Courses on Mechatronics

Design-based learning (DBL) is an educational approach grounded in the processes of inquiry and reasoning towards generating innovative artifacts, systems and solutions. The approach is well characterized in the context of learning natural sciences in secondary education. Less is known, however, of its characteristics in the context of higher engineering education. The purpose of this review study is to identify key characteristics of DBL in higher engineering education. From the tenets of engineering design practices and higher engineering education contexts we identified four relevant dimensions for organizing these characteristics: the project characteristics, the role of the teacher, the assessment methods, and the social context. Drawing on these four dimensions, we systematically reviewed the state-of-the-art empirical literature on DBL or DBL-like educational projects in higher engineering education. Based on this review we conclude that DBL projects consist of open-ended, hands-on, authentic and multidisciplinary design tasks resembling the community of engineering professionals. Teachers facilitate both the process of gaining domain-specific knowledge and the thinking activities relevant to propose innovative solutions. Teachers scaffold students in the development from novice to expert engineers. Assessment is characterized by formative and summative of both individual and team products and processes and by the use of a variety of assessment instruments. Finally, the social context of DBL projects includes peer-to-peer collaboration in which students work in teams. The implications of these findings for further research on DBL in higher engineering education are discussed.

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A sampled literature review of design-based learning approaches: a search for key characteristics

LEGO Mindstorms NXT robots are being increasingly used in undergraduate courses, mostly in robotics-related subjects. But other engineering topics, like the ones found in data acquisition, control and real-time subjects, also have difficult concepts that can be well understood only with good lab exercises. Such exercises require physical educational tools that should be low cost, easy to configure and use, multi-purpose and motivational for the students, being all of this hard to achieve with a single device. The ''classical'' solution has been to acquire specific commercial kits for each subject, or even topic, usually proprietary and expensive. Our work extends the already existing alternative of using the LEGO Mindstorms NXT robots as a training platform, but not by imitating the same approach of commercial kits (e.g., to isolate some part of the robot for teaching a particular topic); we rather aim at accomplishing all the mentioned requirements simultaneously. For that purpose, we have used only one out-of-the-box, complete robot configuration, to be shared among different subjects without hardware/software/firmware modifications. This has reduced significantly the effort of a group of professors when preparing exercises, and encouraged the reuse of their work among several topics and subjects. Also, we have collected a number of surveys on students and the professors' experiences. In this paper we describe our approach and present in detail the results, which assess the higher motivational adequacy of using a complete robot in these subjects and also the real fulfillment of the other requirements along several academic years.

A LEGO Mindstorms NXT approach for teaching at Data Acquisition, Control Systems Engineering and Real-Time Systems undergraduate courses

Empirical evidence suggests the effectiveness of robotics as a learning complementary tool in tertiary education. In this context, some experiences benefited from the link between educational practice and theory. However, a comprehensive survey on initiatives that explores this link in universities and colleges is missing. This work systematically reviews quantitatively assessed robots applications, grounded in learning theories, in tertiary institutions. By applying a protocol review in different bibliographic databases, 15 papers were selected for synthesis. As a result, experiences developing non-robotic concepts and skills in universities and colleges were found. In most of the cases, Computer Science and Engineering undergraduate courses were involved. In addition, empirical results reported by the selected publications suggest that some literature proposals can be useful in practice. Based on the panorama obtained, this work also points out future directions for practitioners and researchers in education.

Robotics applications grounded in learning theories on tertiary education: A systematic review

Licenza di tipo copyleft (>) utilizzata per la distribuzione di software libero (>). Originariamente scritta da Richard Stallman (>) per il progetto GNU, permette la redistribuzione del software a condizione che il prodotto derivato sia rilasciato sotto la stessa licenza

GNU General Public License

In today's teaching and learning approaches for first-semester students, practical courses more and more often complement traditional theoretical lectures. This practical element allows an early insight into the real world of engineering, augments student motivation, and enables students to acquire soft skills early. This paper describes a new freshman introduction course into practical engineering, which has been established within the Bachelor of Science curriculum of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology of RWTH Aachen University, Germany. The course is organized as an eight-day, full-time block laboratory for over 300 freshman students, who were supervised by more than 60 tutors from 23 institutes of the Electrical Engineering Department. Based on a threefold learning concept comprising mathematical methods, MATLAB programming, and practical engineering, the students were required to transfer mathematical basics to algorithms in MATLAB in order to control LEGO Mindstorms robots. Toward this end, a new toolbox, called the ?RWTH-Mindstorms NXT Toolbox,? was developed, which enables the robots to be controlled remotely via MATLAB from a host computer. This paper describes how the laboratory course is organized and how it induces students to think as actual engineers would in solving real-world tasks with limited resources. Evaluation results show that the project improves the students' MATLAB programming skills, enhances motivation, and enables a peer learning process.

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Bernd Neumann

Papers

MATLAB Meets LEGO Mindstorms—A Freshman Introduction Course Into Practical Engineering