Integrating mathematical analysis of sensors and motion in a mobile robotics course

We describe a series of learning modules created as part of a semester-long course, "Interactive Robotics," which was offered to 32 high school juniors and seniors in the fall of 2007. The course integrates hands-on experiences using practical mobile robots with meaningful theoretical learning. Our analysis of the learning modules focuses on the mathematical knowledge that students employed as they solved robotics problems. Through the context of these problems, students worked with concepts of base numbering systems, data analysis and curve-fitting, and analytic geometry. We demonstrate how these mathematical ideas naturally emerge from the laboratory assignments that we developed, and illustrate the nature of student thinking that is facilitated by this approach.