Development of a Robotics Course for Engineering Students

Abstract

This paper describes the introduction of an industrial robot into the Mechanical Engineering program at Queen’s University. Until the summer of 1985, the Mechanical Engineering Department had a Rhino Robot for demonstration purposes. The Department also conducted a special one week course on a yearly basis at another institution to give students exposure to a variety of industrial robots. This course is described in the 1985 ASEE conference proceedings [1]. With a variety of projects geared to studies of robot applications in the local industries, described in Proceedings of ASME/CIME [2] and the 1985 Proceedings of the ICPR [3], it was shown that Queen’s Mechanical Engineering Students were getting a fairly good exposure to Robotics. However, with a very generous donation by General Motors of a 1980 hydraulic PRAB Robot (Model FA), it was found that some substantial changes occurred in the robotics area within the Department. The robot, which is nine feet high, has a seventy-two inch working radius and a payload capacity of 1125 N., required a large amount of space within the department. This space was designated after several meetings concerning rearrangement of already very crowded laboratory space. It also precipitated a series of laboratory space problems which have yet to be resolved. Within a period of two months after installation of the robot, there were three graduate student theses projects as well a variety of undergraduate Mechanical Engineering projects, dealing with various aspects of the robot. The introduction of this major piece of equipment into the department has gone relatively smoothly and has also precipitated the development of a new Robotics course to be offered in early 1987.