(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2012-01)
Howard, Ayanna M.; Park, Chung Hyuk; Remy, Sekou
The robotics field represents the integration of multiple facets of computer science and engineering. Robotics-based activities have been shown to encourage K-12 students to consider careers in computing and have even been adopted as part of core computer-science curriculum at a number of universities. Unfortunately, for students with visual impairments, there are still inadequate opportunities made available for teaching basic computing concepts using robotics-based curriculum. This outcome is generally due to the scarcity of accessible interfaces to educational robots and the unfamiliarity of teachers with alternative (e.g., nonvisual) teaching methods. As such, in this paper, we discuss the use of alternative interface modalities to engage students with visual impairments in robotics-based programming activities. We provide an overview of the interaction system and results on a pilot study that engaged nine middle school students with visual impairments during a two-week summer camp.
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008)
Remy, Sekou; Howard, Ayanna M.
Advances in space science and technology have enabled humanity to reach a stage where we are able to send manned and unmanned vehicles to explore nearby planets. However, given key differences between terrestrial and space environments such as differences in atmospheric content and pressure, acceleration due to gravity among many others between our planet and those we wish to explore, it is not always easy or feasible to expect all mission related tasks to be accomplished by astronauts alone. The presence of robots that specialize in different tasks would greatly enhance our capabilities and enable better overall performance. In this paper we discuss a methodology for building a robotic system that can learn to perform tasks via interactive learning. This learning functionality extends the ability for a robot agent to operate with similar competence as their human teacher- whether astronaut, mission designer, or engineer. We provide details on our approach and give representative examples of applying the different methods in relevant task scenarios.
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008)
Howard, Ayanna M.; Remy, Sekou
This paper presents two different approaches for utilizing virtual environments to enable learning for both human and robotic students. In the first approach, we showcase a 3D interactive environment that allows a human user to learn how to interact with a virtual robot, before interaction with a physical robot. In the second approach, we present a method that utilizes a simulation environment to provide feedback to a human teacher during a training session in order to concurrently allow adaptation of the learning process for both the teacher and the robotic student. We provide details of the approaches in this paper and provide results of the learning outcomes for the two different scenarios.