1. Controlling the ER1 Robot with Visual Basic Anthony Austin Kenneth Hanson William Lopez

2. The Evolution of the Robot into the Learning Environment Anthony Austin Cerritos College

3. Statement of the Problem: The US is experiencing a decline in the number of college and university graduates in the fields of engineering, computer science and technology.

4. Addressing the Problem: n Interest students in technology through the use of robotic, computer and electronic engineering. n Provide technical workshops to strengthen teachers’ experience and education in engineering. n Encourage enrollment through articulation between the university, community college, secondary and elementary educational systems

5. A Robotic Solution: There has been a resurgence of interest in robotics caused by: Space exploration Marine exploration Entertainment Automation

6. Objective of the Activity n To Provide a Graphical Interface Using the Visual Basic Language to control the ER1 Robot.

7. CSULB Research Project n Educational Use of Autonomous Robots –Communication –Control –Programming –Sensor interface –Imaging –Speech recognition –Speech synthesis

8. The ER1 Robot Kenneth Hanson Cerritos College

9. Capabilities of ER1 Robot n Motion Control-Navigation n Speech Recognition and Synthesis n Vision-Object Recognition n Gripper Control n Communication by Wireless and Internet Communication

10. Programming the ER1 Robot The behaviors or activities of the ER1 are controlled by a series of IF, THEN statements.

11. Controls Screen

12. Behavior Execution Examples of IF, THEN Behavior Behavior 1: IF see a dollar bill THEN say 1 dollar bill. Behavior 2: IF Detector senses obstacle THEN say obstacle

13. Controlling the ER1 with Visual Basic William Lopez Cerritos College

14. ER1 Control Screen n Sophisticated n Complex n Proprietary

16. Disadvantages of Using ER1 Control Screen n Coding of ER1 incompatible with Existing Educational Robots n Limited by Proprietary Coding n Difficult to Modify

17. Why Use Visual Basic? n Provides a Simple Visual Interface n Code is Transparent to the User n Common Programming Language n Versatile

18. Visual Basic Interface

19. Visual Basic Code n Similar to Basic Computer Language n Easy to Modify

20. New Visual Basic Control Screen

21. Activity Results: n Achieved Control of ER1 Robot using Visual Basic Programming n Gained new programming skills

22. Evolving the ER1 into the future n Educational Use of Autonomous Robots –Communication –Control –Programming –Sensor interface –Imaging –Speech recognition –Speech synthesis