Robotics Curriculum

Draft Physical Science General Education Curriculum

Action Committee Charter

The charter of this committee is define the curriculum for a Robotics Class that will fulfill the physical science General Education requirements under Ohlone's General Education Plan A or B.

Introduction

Science and Technology plays an every increasing role in today's society. Students must understand how scientific innovation can affect their lives either directly or indirectly. A Physical Science General Education class should teach students the principles of scientific methodology as it is applied to solving problems. The application of this scientific method is a skill which students will carry through out their lives - even those who do not major in these topics. To function in today's society students need to know how to navigate an abundance of technical information - to obtain the information, understand it and determine how to apply it to their lives. They must learn to distinguish between what is scientific and what is psuedo-science.

The class will not have any pre-requisites and will be structured for both science and non-science majors and should be able to attract students from various backgrounds. The student should experience how scientific principles are applied in robotics as they learn about math and science. The emphasis is for students to learn science by actually doing science. Students taking this introduction to robotics will learn the following things:

• How computers operate
• How computers and robots are similar
• Difference between analog and digital information
• How computer programs control computers
• Integration of Basic Electrical and Electronic concepts with Robot Systems
• Universal nature of systems
• What is the relationship between physical phenomena and computers and networks and programming
• What is a transducer - analog to digitial and digital to analog conversions
• How a computer can change a physical environment
• What is an Embedded System
• Differences between an open loop and closed loop system
• What is artificial intelligence
• How to plan a project and divide it into manageable tasks

Class Syllabus

• Units 3
• Lecture 3 hours
• Lab 3 Hours
• No Pre-requisites
• 18 week semester class
• Class Fee to cover cost of replacement parts

Topics by Week

• Week 1 - General Science and relationship to computers and networks
• Week 2 - Robots and Computers - How science can solve a complex problem
• Week 3 - Tools of Scientific Method – Math Skills, Observation, Reports
• Week 4 - How to Interface to the real Physical World – Taking Measurements
• Week 5 - How computers interact with the Physical World - How computers think
• Week 6 - Introduction to program control – artificial intelligence
• Week 7 - Creating mechanical Response – altering a system status through robotics
• Week 8 - Project Planning
• Week 9 - Mid-Term
• Week 10 - Application of Technical Knowledge to Solve a Problem
• Week 11-13 - Construction Principles
• Week 14 - Testing a System - Instrumentation Applications
• Week 15 - Documentation and Review Process
• Week 16 - Troubleshooting and System Tweaking
• Week 17 - Final Reports – How does Robotics Apply to Other Technologies
• Week 18 - Final Exam

General Class Plan

The first half of the class will be devoted to understand basic principles of electrical, computer and mechanical systems. Devices will be studied as individual components in order to build a foundation for building a robotic system. Labs will also focus during this time on individual device response.

In the second half of the class, the emphasis will shift toward a complete robotic system and how programming, electronics and mechanics are integrated into such systems. A complete functional robotic system will be built by each student.