"Competing" for a robotics education

D esign competitions are becoming increasingly common , especially in the field of mobile robots. The sponsorship of such competitions ranges from local clubs of enthusiasts to large professional organizations , such as the American Association for Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), which sponsors the annual AAAI Mobile Robot Competition and Exhibition as part of their annual conference. Awards for competitions vary from certificates of merit to significant prize money; for example, the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems (AUVS) Annual Ground Robotics Competition awards $5,000 to its first-place winner, $3,000 to the second place, and $2,000 to the third place. The Colorado School of Mines (CSM) has been a leader in fostering the intellectual development of its students through design activities [4]. One outcome of this emphasis has been the incorporation of national design competitions directly into the classwork of its " Introduction to Robotics and Computer Vision " (junior/se-nior level), " Advanced Robotics and Computer Vision " (graduate level), and " Field Session " (computer science design practicum) courses offered by the Department of Mathematical and Computer Sciences. The intent of these efforts is to improve students' design competence and intellectual maturity by taking advantage of the opportunities afforded by robot competitions. This article reviews experiences associated with these courses and their design teams over a five-year period. The design teams met the objectives of each course while earning one first-place and four third-place awards plus $5,000 in prizes as well as producing seven papers. Based on these positive experiences, I encourage others to integrate competitions into classes and offer recommendations on how to facilitate the process. Although the focus of this article is specific to classroom education, it is expected that these observations will also provide insight into the incorporation of design competitions into the general educational experience. A competition can reinforce key concepts of a course and bring reality to an AI robotics project, while producing a viable entry. Other teaching opportunities not covered in class, such a budgeting, improving communication skills, etc., are not discussed in this article. The article begins by contrasting the objectives of competitions versus educational experiences. The conclusion is that certain portions of competitions can be an important tool for fostering intellectual maturity, as defined by the Perry Model [3]. Next, a classification of the major international robot competitions is presented. Background information on the courses is presented next as well as how that …