Abstract
This paper presents an open-access platform for practical learning of intelligent robotics in engineering degrees: Robotics-Academy. It comprises a collection of exercises including recent service robot applications in real life, with different robots such as autonomous cars, drones or vacuum cleaners. It uses Robot Operating System (ROS) middleware, the de facto standard in robot programming, the 3D Gazebo simulator and the Python programming language. For each exercise, a software template has been developed, performing all the auxiliary tasks such as the graphical interface, connection to the sensors and actuators, timing of the code, etc. This also hosts the student’s code. Using this template, the student just focuses on the robot intelligence (for instance, perception and control algorithms) without wasting time on auxiliary details which have little educational value. The templates are coded as ROS nodes or as Jupyter Notebooks ready to use in the web browser. Reference solutions for illustrative purposes and automatic assessment tools for gamification have also been developed. An introductory course to intelligent robotics has been elaborated and its contents are available and ready to use at Robotics-Academy, including reactive behaviors, path planning, local/global navigation, and self-localization algorithms. Robotics-Academy provides a valuable complement to master classes in blended learning, massive online open courses (MOOCs) and online video courses, devoted to addressing theoretical content. This open educational tool connects that theory with practical robot applications and is suitable to be used in distance education. Robotics-Academy has been successfully used in several subjects on undergraduate and master’s degree engineering courses, in addition to a pre-university pilot course.
Highlights
An increasing number of robotic applications are available to the general public
An introductory Intelligent Robotics course has been presented. It is based on Robotics-Academy, publicly available and ready to use
The course includes several appealing exercises related to drones, autonomous cars, mobile robots and computer vision
Summary
An increasing number of robotic applications are available to the general public. Beyond the classic industrial applications and automobile assembly processes, robots are used today, for example, in food packaging or in warehouse logistics. Robotic vacuum cleaners have been an unprecedented sales breakthrough, using autonomous robots to successfully solve a real life need at homes. Cars are increasingly incorporating robotic technologies such as auto-parking or even autonomous driver-assistance systems. The big automakers have encouraged these new technologies, achieving advanced prototypes of autonomous cars. Software companies like Google or Apple have been at the forefront of these developments. Applications with aerial robots (drones) are rapidly growing in number. Robot products and applications (vacuum cleaners, autonomous driving, factories, etc.), software for robotics. Reactive systems: Control loop, proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers, Finite.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
