Question L1-C1

The question is about the definition of robotics and robotic tasks. The question asks if a task of drawing a square with a mobile robot (holding a pen and running on a piece of paper) is a convincing of robotic task. Several answers are proposed showing possible misconception of why such a task could be good or bad. 

Answer A: The sensor used to measure the displacement, the motor speed sensors, is not very precise: this is not the best robotic task to show to the pupils.
This answer is not correct: the fact that only the speed sensor, and no sensors of the environment is used, makes that this task is not fulfilling the definition of a robotic task. A robot needs to interact with the environment, and here there is no sensor detecting the environment. 		
In the explanation of the student we would like that the student mentions that the speed sensor is not sufficient to make this system a robot. 
					
Answer B: The teacher missed a key element that makes this a bad exemple in robotics: calibration. Each robot should be individually calibrated for this specific task and will do better squares.	
This answer is not correct: despite the calibration can improve the precision of the drawing of the square, this is not the main point that makes this a bad exemple in robotics. A robot needs to interact with the environment, and here there is no sensor detecting the environment. Therefore this is not a robotic task.
In the explanation of the student we would like that the student mentions that this aspect, the calibration, is certainly important for the task but in general this sentence is wrong because the task presented is not a robotic task. 

Answer C: This is not a robotic task, as there are no exteroceptive sensors used, only a proprioceptive one.
This answer is correct: As there is no sensing of the environment, the basic definition of a robot, able to sense the environment and act on it, is not fulfilled.
In the explanation we would like that the student mentions that this feature, the missing exteroceptive sensor, does not allo to respect the definition of a robot.
