TekBots are programmable robots used by several universities to help students learn some of the fundamental concepts that are found in the fields of computer and electrical engineering.
TekBots are centered on the Atmel microcontroller platform. This is the "brain" of the robot as it controls the robot's two motorized wheels allowing it to move. The robot's controller boards, wheels and all other peripherals are housed in an aluminum base.
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The original TekBots program was developed by the Oregon State University College of Engineering. [2] Professors there wanted to provide a fun and interesting way for students to get excited about engineering. In 2000, the TekBots program was able to get off the ground with a $500,000 grant from the Oregon-based company, Tektronix inc. [3]
Freshman students entering Oregon State University's engineering program start out with $80 worth of electronics to build their initial TekBot. As the students take more and more classes while in the electrical and computer engineering program, more and more functionality is added to the robots; such as bump sensors to sense when the robot has struck a wall or LCD screens to display a message or even infrared (IR) transmitters and receivers to communicate with the robot.
Students program the robot using such software as AVR Studio 4 in order to write and compile a C program. The program is then transferred to the robot via a USB or parallel port dongle.
The TekBots program at Oregon State University is still seed-funded by Tektronix today.
TekBots is currently offered by 5 universities worldwide:
Several community colleges and other universities have also purchased TekBots over the years.
At most of the colleges the TekBot is used in an introduction to the electrical engineering course. At Oregon State they are used as a platform for learning in 10 classes. At Nebraska they are used in three classes in combination with the Mega 128 microcontroller. Also at Rochester they are used in digital logic courses as well as the microprocessor and introduction classes.
Both Nebraska and Oregon State combine the TekBot in integrating a freshman mentoring program.
Many senior design projects at Oregon State are completed with the TekBot. An example was the Tekway, a Segway built using TekBots brains.
Computer engineering is a branch of electrical engineering that integrates several fields of electrical engineering, electronics engineering and Computer Science required to develop computer hardware and software. Computer engineering is referred to as Electrical and Computer engineering OR Computer Science and Engineering at some universities
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The University of California, Berkeley College of Engineering is the public engineering school of the University of California, Berkeley. Established in 1931, it occupies fourteen buildings on the northeast side of the main campus and also operates the 150-acre (61-hectare) Richmond Field Station. It is also considered highly selective and is consistently ranked among the top engineering schools in both the nation and the world.
Tektronix, Inc., historically widely known as Tek, is an American company best known for manufacturing test and measurement devices such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and video and mobile test protocol equipment. Originally an independent company, it is now a subsidiary of Fortive, a spinoff from Danaher Corporation.
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Oregon State University's College of Engineering is the engineering college of Oregon State University, a public research university in Corvallis, Oregon. By enrollment, the college is now the largest at the university and the seventh-largest engineering college in the nation (2023).
Arduino is an Italian open-source hardware and software company, project, and user community that designs and manufactures single-board microcontrollers and microcontroller kits for building digital devices. Its hardware products are licensed under a CC BY-SA license, while the software is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) or the GNU General Public License (GPL), permitting the manufacture of Arduino boards and software distribution by anyone. Arduino boards are available commercially from the official website or through authorized distributors.
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The College of Engineering and Applied Science is the engineering and applied science college of the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is the birthplace of the cooperative education (co-op) program and still holds the largest public mandatory cooperative education program at a public university in the United States. Today, it has a student population of around 4,898 undergraduate and 1,305 graduate students and is recognized annually as one of the top 100 engineering colleges in the US, ranking 83rd in 2020.
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The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to robotics:
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Educational robotics teaches the design, analysis, application and operation of robots. Robots include articulated robots, mobile robots or autonomous vehicles. Educational robotics can be taught from elementary school to graduate programs. Robotics may also be used to motivate and facilitate the instruction other, often foundational, topics such as computer programming, artificial intelligence or engineering design.
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