Digital Twin of the Robot Baxter for Learning Practice in Spatial Manipulation Tasks

Abstract

In the study presented in this paper we developed a laboratory exercise in which first-year industrial engineering students operate the robot Baxter to perform spatial manipulations of objects. We implemented the exercise on a digital twin of Baxter which simulates robot manipulations in the Gazebo virtual environment. For this purpose, we developed a virtual robotic cell for practicing spatial manipulations with oriented blocks. The digital twin was calibrated to mimic the physical properties of the Baxter and correctly simulate its operations. The exercise was delivered to a class of 25 students as part of the robotics workshop in the Introduction to Industrial Engineering course. We administered post-workshop questionnaires with focus on the analysis of the learning outcomes and students’ spatial difficulties. The students noted that the workshop and particularly the exercise effectively exposed them to industrial robotics and raised their spatial awareness in robot operation.