Related papers: Making High-Performance Robots Safe and Easy to Us…
Small-scale autonomous vehicle platforms provide a cost-effective environment for developing and testing advanced driving systems. However, specific configurations within this scale are underrepresented, limiting full awareness of their…
As artificial intelligence (AI) is playing an increasingly important role in our society and global economy, AI education and literacy have become necessary components in college and K-12 education to prepare students for an AI-powered…
Remote teleoperation of robots can broaden the reach of domain specialists across a wide range of industries such as home maintenance, health care, light manufacturing, and construction. However, current direct control methods are…
Incorporating computer programming exercises in introductory physics is a delicate task that involves a number of choices that may have a strong affect on student learning. We present an approach that speaks to a number of common concerns…
As robots interact with a broader range of end-users, end-user robot programming has helped democratize robot programming by empowering end-users who may not have experience in robot programming to customize robots to meet their individual…
TiniScript is an intermediate programming language designed for educational robotics, aligned with STEM principles to foster integrative learning experiences. With its minimalist single-line syntax, such as F(2, 80) , TiniScript simplifies…
In this paper we report on first insights from interviews with teachers and students on using social robots in computer science class in sixth grade. Our focus is on learning about requirements and potential applications. We are…
As robots and other intelligent agents move from simple environments and problems to more complex, unstructured settings, manually programming their behavior has become increasingly challenging and expensive. Often, it is easier for a…
Large Language Models (LLMs) have upended decades of pedagogy in computing education. Students previously learned to code through \textit{writing} many small problems with less emphasis on code reading and comprehension. Recent research has…
End-user robot programming grants users the flexibility to re-task robots in situ, yet it remains challenging for novices due to the need for specialized robotics knowledge. Large Language Models (LLMs) hold the potential to lower the…
In this paper, we present Code Shrew, a new software platform accompanied by an interactive programming course. Its aim is to teach the fundamentals of computer programming by enabling users to create their own drawings and animations. The…
Dexterous object manipulation remains an open problem in robotics, despite the rapid progress in machine learning during the past decade. We argue that a hindrance is the high cost of experimentation on real systems, in terms of both time…
Providing feedback on programming assignments manually is a tedious, error prone, and time-consuming task. In this paper, we motivate and address the problem of generating feedback on performance aspects in introductory programming…
In this paper we present an open source educational robot, designed both to engage children in an affective and social interaction, and to be programmable also in its social and affective behaviour. Indeed the robot, in addition to classic…
This paper presents an open-source, lightweight, yet comprehensive software framework, named RPC, which integrates physics-based simulators, planning and control libraries, debugging tools, and a user-friendly operator interface. RPC…
Regardless of their industrial or research application, the streamlining of robot operations is limited by the proximity of experienced users to the actual hardware. Be it massive open online robotics courses, crowd-sourcing of robot task…
Validation of robotics theory on real-world hardware platforms is important to prove the practical feasibility of algorithms. This paper discusses some of the lessons learned while adapting the EvoBot, a low-cost robotics platform that we…
The introductory programming sequence has been the focus of much research in computing education. The recent advent of several viable and freely-available AI-driven code generation tools present several immediate opportunities and…
Robotics is undergoing a significant transformation powered by advances in high-level control techniques based on machine learning, giving rise to the field of robot learning. Recent progress in robot learning has been accelerated by the…
Robot programming methods for industrial robots are time consuming and often require operators to have knowledge in robotics and programming. To reduce costs associated with reprogramming, various interfaces using augmented reality have…