Introducing Basic Engineering 1100, the only course at Wayne State University where students get to play with Legos, for credit.

To be sure, freshman 'Lego Robotics Design', offered for the first time this semester, is not a guaranteed 'A'. Unless, of course, you're familiar with C-language basic computer programming, debugging document software, and the internal workings of sensory devices, motors, and microprocessors.

But for those who love playing with Legos and battery-operated model cars, this course may be for you.

Students in the class design and program their own self-navigating vehicles or robots from Lego Mindstorms Robotics Invention System kits.

"I think it's cool; I love Legos" said Bob Bellair, a chemical engineering major on a recent morning in the Lego Robotics Lab. Bellair and his teammate, Eric Goodhue, were refining the program for their 'DumpBot', a dump truck robot that followed a thick black line course on a large piece of butcher paper. The DumpBot's infrared light kept the robot on track. When it reached a large black square, it stopped, tilted its truck bed 45 degrees, turned around and headed in the opposite direction.

Bellair's team, nicknamed 'MachaBot', also built and programmed a 'BugBot' with long tubes or 'feelers' that slide along the floor in front of it and react when they hit a wall or barrier. Bellair likes the programming aspect of the class. "Computer programming is good to know for just about any field you go into," he said.

'Lego Robotics Design' is the brainchild of Mohamad Hassoun, professor of electrical and computer engineering, who understood the power of play in learning. Yang Zhao, chair of the department, believed in Hassoun's idea, and invested $10,000 in it to buy the kits, sensors, software, technical support, and to set up the lab with the computers.

"I wanted something that would capture their imaginations, and to expose and engage students to real engineering and teamwork as early as possible," said Hassoun. "I want to motivate them in the necessary mathematics and science courses they are taking -- to help them see the practical uses -- and to teach programming and manual skills they lack."

Engineering design classes are not required until the senior year. Typically, engineering students study the theoretical and are not exposed to practical hands-on engineering until then, unless they join student teams such as Team Ethanol or the Solar Car team recently formed for the first time at Wayne State.

The class gives the students the rare opportunity to actually see the result of their programming, said Artiklar. "When they see that what they've worked on actually works, they get pretty excited."

Along with the LEGO kits (which cost $200), various types of sensors (touch, light, rotation, temperature, pressure, etc.) and output devices such as motors and lamps are available for the students to incorporate into their designs. The kits resemble jumbo Lego sets, only with more parts, and a programmable microprocessor called a Brick.

The student teams -- two two-student and one three-student teams --meet at the lab and work at a computer with the basic robot body, Brick and parts on the counter in front of them. They use the course textbook -- Definitive Guide to Lego Mindstorms by Dave Baum -- and other web-based course materials. The students write weekly journals documenting their work and post their entries on their own websites.

Once they write a program on the computer, they download it into the Brick nestled into the center of the robot and test it on the course.

Artiklar is noticing that as the students become more familiar with the computer programming language, their robots are getting more sophisticated. "They are required to reprogram the robotics to perform a new set of tasks not in the book," he said.

For the final, the student teams will be expected to build and program the robots to perform specified tasks for time. The contest will require the robots to enter a 1.5 meter square arena surrounded by black walls. Lightweight white and red balls the size of tennis balls will be placed at initially undisclosed locations within the arena. The robots will be expected to search for the red balls and remove them from the arena.


For more information about the class, visit their website at: http://neuron.eng.wayne.edu/LEGO_ROBOTICS/lego_robotics.html