Use of the walking machine Flat Freddy in computer science education

This paper is a case study addressing a walking machine, named Flat Freddy, which was designed and built for a practical work within the studies of computer science. The regular aim of this annual practical course is to design an electronic circuit, normally a piece of digital hardware. Another rationale behind it is to broaden the students' view to systems design. In 1999 we hence decided to use a walking machine as the target application platform in order to emphasize the need of an interdisciplinary system design and the control aspect of dynamic systems in general. Another aim was to cover as many levels of a (mobile) robotic system as possible with an emphasis on electronics. In this paper the walking machine itself and the specific task of the practical work are briefly described. Then the results are presented and the experiences gained by that are discussed.