  Robots are a popular platform for introducing computing and artificial
intelligence to novice programmers. However, programming state-of-the-art
robots is very challenging, and requires knowledge of concurrency, operation
safety, and software engineering skills, which can take years to teach. In this
paper, we present an approach to introducing computing that allows students to
safely and easily program high-performance robots. We develop a platform for
students to program RoboCup Small Size League robots using JavaScript. The
platform 1) ensures physical safety at several levels of abstraction, 2) allows
students to program robots using the JavaScript in the browser, without the
need to install software, and 3) presents a simplified JavaScript semantics
that shields students from confusing language features. We discuss our
experience running a week-long workshop using this platform, and analyze over
3,000 student-written program revisions to provide empirical evidence that our
approach does help students.
