Introduction to Myro

CSC447 - Spring 2010

Myro Overview:

Myro, which stands for My Robot, was developed by Georgia Tech and Bryn Mawr College under a $1 million grant from Microsoft (which also launched IPRE, Institute for Personal Robots in Education: http://www.roboteducation.org/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_Personal_Robots_in_Education).  It is a later iteration of Pyro (Python robotics) and thus is written in Python.  Myro has three (or four) components, (http://wiki.roboteducation.org/Myro_Development)

          1. Scribbler from Parallax: http://www.parallax.com/tabid/455/Default.aspx

          2. Fluke: http://wiki.roboteducation.org/IPRE_Fluke

          3. Myro software: http://wiki.roboteducation.org/Windows_Setup

                             http://wiki.roboteducation.org/Myro_Installation_Manual

          4. Bluetooth adapter (if needed)

Using Myro

We were able to purchase Myros with funds from a Tyco Educational Foundation Grant.  Myro will be our main development platform for both exercises and projects.  The projects will illustrate AI concepts as applied in the robotics domain.  This fits well with our textbook, which is oriented toward agents as the end result of AI research.  We will use the textbook developed by IPRE (see link below) for learning both Myro and Python, but Russell and Norvig for the main course text.  You can download the text as a PDF file or have it printed and bound by FedEx for about $20.  You may also want to check out what would be charged by Business Link downtown.

     – Download Myro book: Learning Computing with Robots, Deepak Kumar

          http://cs.brynmawr.edu/~dkumar/Myro/Text/June09/PDF/LCRJune2009.pdf

     – Directions for obtaining printed copy from FedEx:

          http://wiki.roboteducation.org/Introduction_to_Computer_Science_via_Robots

Exercises:

1. Download Learning Computing with Robots (LCR).

2. Read preface and first 3 chapters of LCR.

3. Download and install Myro software.

4. Open the Python shell from Start Python.pyw and import Myro

5. Read pages 188-191 of LCR.

    a. Create a graphics window and draw a line.

    b. Draw a square

    c. Draw the fanlike picture at the bottom of page 191.

6. Reread page 47 of LCR.

    a. Get your computer to say "Myro is way cool"

    b. Get your computer to count from 1 to 20.