Freshman Engineers Build MATLAB Powered LEGO Robots

http://www.mathworks.com/company/newsletters/edu_digest/2008/aug/matlab_lego.html

First submitted by Linda Webb on 29 Jun 2009

Enable students to learn math and signal processing theory and implement it by MATLAB algorithms

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Date	Contributor	Description	Rating
29 Jun 2009	Linda Webb	In a lab that we call "MATLAB® meets LEGO Mindstorms," more than 300 first-year students at RWTH Aachen University build and program their own robots. The course links mathematics taught in the first term with digital signal processing applications. It focuses on discrete signals and system theory, covering topics including signal sampling, LSI systems, Fourier transforms, vector spaces, and matrix operations. In addition to a two-hour introduction to MATLAB, students receive MATLAB example code and demos, and links to other mathematics courses that focus on linear algebra. After two months, the associated lab brings all the material together as the students build their robots. We designed the course to enable the students not only to learn math and signal processing theory but also to apply it by implementing MATLAB algorithms in machines that move, that actually do something. We chose MATLAB as a basis for the course because with MATLAB, taking an algorithm developed on a white board to a working implementation is straightforward. Many of the class lectures require matrix and vector operations, which we can map directly to MATLAB algorithms. MATLAB is a natural environment for these kinds of operations, providing students with an easy way to learn mathematical methods using real applications. By Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Til Aach and Alexander Behrens, RWTH Aachen University This article was published in MATLAB Digest \| Academic Edition, August 2008

Tag Activity

Tag	Applied By	Date/Time
mindstorms	Gautam Vallabha	2 Jul 2009 at 3:30pm
lego	Gautam Vallabha	2 Jul 2009 at 3:30pm
robotics	Gautam Vallabha	2 Jul 2009 at 3:30pm
robots	Gautam Vallabha	2 Jul 2009 at 3:30pm
technical computing	Linda Webb	29 Jun 2009 at 4:33pm
whitepaper	Linda Webb	29 Jun 2009 at 4:33pm
signal processing	Linda Webb	29 Jun 2009 at 4:33pm
paper	Linda Webb	29 Jun 2009 at 4:33pm
education	Linda Webb	29 Jun 2009 at 4:33pm
communications	Linda Webb	29 Jun 2009 at 4:33pm
article	Linda Webb	29 Jun 2009 at 4:33pm

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