IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2017 - 162

mobile robots," and 21% selected "a broad and balanced introduction to the entire field of robotics." None of the remaining
categories (e.g., mechatronic design, artificial intelligence, or
introductory programming) were selected by more than 5%
of the participants.
One of the most interesting outcomes of the survey is the
distribution of topics that instructors choose to include in their
introductory course, which can be seen in Figure 2. The blue

Figure 3. A word cloud depicting the relative frequency of
RAS keywords from the proceedings of the 2015 International
Conference on Robotics and Automation. Compare this to the
distribution of topics from introductory robotics courses shown
in Figure 2.

Table 2. Textbook selection.
Number of
Users (Out of 36)

Textbook
R. Siegwart, I. R. Nourbakhsh, and
D. Scaramuzza, Introduction to
Autonomous Mobile Robots, MIT Press

Seven

M. W. Spong, S. Hutchinson, and
M. Vidyasagar, Robot Modeling
and Control, John Wiley and Sons

Seven

S. Thrun, W. Burgard, and D. Fox,
Probabilistic Robotics, MIT Press

Four

B. Siciliano, L. Sciavicco, L. Villani,
and G. Oriolo, Robotics: Modeling,
Planning and Control, Springer

Three

J. J. Craig, Introduction to Robotics:
Mechanics and Control, Prentice Hall

Three

H. Choset et al., Principles of Robot
Motion: Theory, Algorithms and
Implementation, A Bradford Book

Two

P. Corke, Robotics, Vision and
Control, Springer

Two

Other

Eight

Responses to "Which textbook (if any) do you use?" Of the 67
participants, 36 use a textbook, with the remaining 31 using selfauthored notes. Books cited two or more times are named here.
Participants did not indicate editions.

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IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

SEPTEMBER 2017

lines are based on all of the responses (n = 66), and the red lines
are based only on the responses from instructors who
described their course as a "broad and balanced introduction to
robotics" (n = 15). It is interesting to compare this distribution
to the frequency of key words from large robotics conferences,
such as the 2015 International Conference on Robotics and
Automation. Figure 3 depicts the relative topical frequency key
word index of that conference's proceedings. Obviously, it is difficult to make a direct comparison between introductory courses and an academic research conference, but it begs the
question of whether our introductory courses are preparing our
students to go on to work on topics of current relevance.
Returning to the question of the "biggest challenges in
robotics education," the second most common set of comments (31%) relate to topic selection, noting that the field is so
diverse that it is difficult to create a single introductory course
that is representative. Yet, despite this sentiment, educators are
somewhat split about the idea of creating a standardized curriculum for introductory robotics courses: 4.8% strongly disagreed, 20.6% disagreed, 39.7% were unsure, 15.9% agreed,
and 19% strongly agreed. In contrast, in the physical sciences,
a widely accepted curriculum exists that reflects the diversity
of the field. For example, the set of topics taught in first-year
physics courses is remarkably uniform across institutions,
with modules covering mechanics, electricity and magnetism,
thermal and fluid sciences, quantum mechanics, and cosmology. The American Physics Society has a taskforce that makes
recommendations on postsecondary physics education [7].
Similarly, the American Chemical Society has multiple standards for chemistry education for high schools and two-year
and four-year colleges along with an approval (also known as
accreditation) process for degree programs [8].
Educational Resources
The fourth section of the survey concerns the use of textbooks, online course materials, hardware platforms, and computing environments for the laboratory component of these
introductory courses.
Textbooks and Online Course Materials
Only 54% of faculty members reported using a textbook in
their course, while the rest preferred self-written notes. Of
those who used a book, the most common choices are listed
in Table 2. It is clear that no single text is dominant; even the
top choices were selected by no more than 10% of the participants. This certainly reflects the diversity in approaches to
teaching the material (i.e., mobile versus articulated robotics). However, this may also suggest an underlying dissatisfaction with the books on the market. When asked to rate
how well their chosen book suited their needs, the average
score was 2.12 on a scale of 0-4 (with 4 being a perfect fit)
after excluding those using self-written notes. The follow-up
comments on this question indicate that instructors consider
textbook selection to be a significant challenge. First, there
was a sense that not many texts are written at an appropriate
level of rigor for senior undergraduates or first-year graduate

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2017