Hi Jay,

On Sun, Jul 17, 2005 at 04:06:28AM -0400, D. Jay Newman wrote:
>
> I'm not familiar with these robots. I'd be interested in a quick opinion
> about why you think they are good for teaching, if you have the time.

The robots have a lot of good qualities (ignoring the programming language
used). They have sensors for light intensity (two CdS cells), proximity (two
IR xmit/receive pairs), sound, and beneath the plastic dome three collision
detection switches. As far as output goes, in addition to the robots
movement, there is a two line LCD display and a piezo buzzer, whose pitch
and duration can be changed to play simple tunes.

A serial link is used to transfer the program to the robot and the host
software is easy to use. One thing I don't care much for is that the users
program is stored in RAM. So, that when the robot is turned off the program
is lost; this isn't too bad in an educational setting, but it is undesirable
as a whole. And sadly the robot is controlled by a Motorola HC11 uC and not
a PIC. ;^)

The LCD display makes this robot very student friendly, we used it for
debugging more than anything else. I think it's a very capable robot system,
I just loath teaching C. I'm a proficient C programmer, but in my situation
and setting C is an awful choice of language to use.

Everyone, thanks for you input and suggestions. I'm glad that I have ten
more months to sort this out!

Matthew

-- 
Science is facts; just as houses are made of stones, so is science made
of facts; but a pile of stones is not a house and a collection of facts
is not necessarily science.
                -- Henri Poincaire
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