About the size of a Frisbee with wheels, TJ scoots along the ground. More importantly, TJ's onboard equipment includes a microcomputer that tells it where to go. Controlling the directions and commands is computer code written by students, who are required to make TJ trace letters on the floor, use its eyes and bumpers for sensing and avoiding obstacles, find its way to a nearby doorway, and more. Steven Ridenour, a professor and chairman of Temple's mechanical engineering department, finds TJ a useful tool for teaching C, the computer language in which the robot's code is written.
C programming can be very boring.
It's a functional technique, but nowhere near as interesting as writing a program to be downloaded to the interactive robot's onboard computer, then watching the robot execute the code. There are actually three TJs. It's just a lot more fun.