Exploring the Usability of Virtual Robotics Programming Curriculum for Robotics Programming Teaching

Systematic Literature Review Protocol: Teaching Novices Programming Using Robotics

Learning to program a computer is a difficult task [1] and it is one factor that contributes to introductory programming courses traditionally suffering high drop-out rates [2]. As if overcoming such a barrier was not challenge enough, the subject is also associated with several negative stereotypes. Indeed, programming is often viewed as being overly complex [3] and as a topic that is reserved...

Programming by Integration in Robotics

This document presents the first operating version of CoolBOT, a component oriented software framework for programming robotic systems. CoolBOT has been designed having in mind the idea of programming by integrating software components, in order to reduce the developing effort typically invested when programming robots. CoolBOT also fosters some interesting features, such as asynchronous execut...

Design Minimalism in Robotics Programming

With the increasing use of general robotic platforms in different application scenarios, modularity and reusability have become key issues in effective robotics programming. In this paper, we present a minimalist approach for designing robot software, in which very simple modules, with well designed interfaces and very little redundancy can be connected through a strongly typed framework to spe...

AiboConnect: A Simple Programming Environment for Robotics

AiboConnect is a program designed to simplify the transition to advanced research with robots. It is simple enough to be used in introductory level courses, yet with enough features that it has been used in advanced research projects. This article describes AiboConnect in some detail and provides concrete examples of how it has been used in the classroom in a variety of different courses. Robot...

Smalltalk as a programming language for robotics?