Learning robotics by combining the theory with practical design and competition in undergraduate engineering education

This is paper summarizes an interdisciplinary, fourth-semester, undergraduate course where the development of a small, all, autonomous robot serves as the focus application. The disciplines of microprocessors, programming, digital and analog electronics, mathematical modeling, dynamical systems, and control theory are the elements of this course. The aim of the course is to teach the basics theory and how to complete the engineering design project from specification to working model of the specified product. During the course students work in teams and build the robots, which perform a compulsory task and a free task. The course ends with a competition - 3 STARS Robot Race. The competition, to design the best robot, is one of the most important motivation factors. We summarize with a discussion of the evaluation results and the students' own opinion of this learning method.