Cleaning the Floor Using a Robot
Raymond Le Grand, Lester Greenman · TeachEngineering Digital Library Submission Portal · 2015
In this lesson, students will face a paradigmatic engineering problem: what mathematical algorithm best solves the following practical problem? The problem is: how should a robot move in order to efficiently clean a floor with unknown shape and dimensions? Students will grapple with what could be a complex problem but then be introduced to an elegant solution – rather than elaborately calculating the most efficient route and keeping track of which tiles the robot has visited, a random number generator determines which direction the robot will take when it hits a barrier. Students will be able to visually confirm how an unfamiliar programming concept (a random number generator) can make for a simple and efficient program that will cause a NXT robot (properly equipped) to clean a bare floor. Students will then be led to explore what other uses of random numbers there are.