Using Robots in Undergraduate AI Courses at Small Universities

Artificial intelligence courses at universities that do not have focused AI tracks may suffer from a lack of student interest unless they are tied to some application of AI that students find appealing. Robots have been used successfully to draw students into AI courses, but their use can take time away from material that instructors feel should be covered in a general course. We present an approach that utilizes small-scale robotics to teach traditional, core AI concepts. The approach is somewhat generalizable and does not rely on any particular textbook. The methodology was used at two universities in the spring of 2009 to good student response. After presenting those results, we discuss ways in which we intend to modify the approach in future semesters.