NDLI: Autonomous robot: An intellectual way of infusing microcontroller fundamentals into sophomore students

Content Provider	IEEE Xplore Digital Library
Author	Parikh, C.
Copyright Year	2015
Description	Author affiliation: Sch. of Eng., Grand Valley State Univ., Grand Rapids, MI, USA (Parikh, C.)
Abstract	Use of microcontrollers has become inevitable in almost every field of engineering. Thus in our program, we have adhered to the idea that knowledge in microcontroller fundamentals is necessary for all types of engineering majors. However, the difficulty arises when a traditional classroom teaching with examples and non-creative projects instill boredom amongst students. Students fail to make the connection of how important this understanding will be in their future studies, be it mechanical, electrical or other majors. We feel there is a missed opportunity to engage engineering students early in their program with a highly relevant and easily tangible experience working with intellectual microcontroller-based projects. In order to improve the experience, we introduce our students to the basics using laboratory exercises on the Arduino platform and then transition to a full-featured in-house autonomous robot platform for the final project. The paper first talks about our current approach in teaching microcontroller topics to the students followed by the need to develop the autonomous robot platform. The robot platform was developed in-house by the undergraduate students using the available in-house resources. The autonomous robot utilizes a commercial chassis, wheels and tracks along with geared DC motors that include embedded quadrature position encoders. In addition to the chassis, the undergraduate students have also used off-the-shelf hardware for robot control and Arduino interface for student developed code. The paper then talks about the various kinds of laboratory exercises and projects that can be implemented on this platform by the students in their introductory digital systems course that they take as sophomores. We further include student assessment data that supports our approach and shows that the students appreciated this intellectual way of learning microcontroller fundamentals so that they can apply the concepts they have learned in a logical and sequential manner to solve practical engineering problems. Finally, we conclude the paper with lessons learned and ideas for an improved learning experience.
Starting Page	1
Ending Page	4
File Size	1043864
Page Count	4
File Format	PDF
ISBN	9781479984541
DOI	10.1109/FIE.2015.7344261
Language	English
Publisher	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Publisher Date	2015-10-21
Publisher Place	USA
Access Restriction	Subscribed
Rights Holder	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Subject Keyword	Microcontrollers Educational robots Radio frequency Digital systems Robot sensing systems Education Arduino microcontroller autonomous robot
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

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