"Choo Choos", Robots And Computer Based Instrumentation For Students

This paper describes a versatile and innovative active learning laboratory currently under development that will be used to teach a wide variety of computer science and mathematics subjects. The laboratory, equipped with a model railroad system, autonomous mobile robots and a network of control computers, offers students hands-on experiences with hardware interfacing, data acquisition, real-time programming, client/server programming, and observing actual physical results of numerically computed solutions to problems. The goal of this work is to produce students with experience in designing solutions to challenging problems that have many dimensions and also the ability to effectively implement and test those solutions. This laboratory will enable us to transform a wide range of computer science algorithms and abstract concepts into physical realities. This paper briefly describes the laboratory hardware and overviews an incrementally complex series of assignments supported by the laboratory.