A Comparison of Robots Used in a Senior Level Robotics Course and Senior Projects

After a course in Artificial Intelligence, many students want to go further. In our case, this translates into an elective course in robotics as well as senior projects and independent student research. While a purely theoretical robotics course is possible, we prefer a course where students further their understanding of robotic principles through labs using functional robots. The problem faced is the large variety and cost of the robotic systems available. In this paper we examine the robotic systems used in our robotics course, senior electives and independent student research. We also discuss an autonomous underwater vehicle designed and built as a direct result of these classes. The relative advantages and disadvantages of each are discussed.