Open Source-Based UAVs for STEAM Education: Some Case Studies

Abstract

The importance of Science Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) education has been strongly recognized over the last few years. STEAM education requires an approach to integrate these disciples, and robots and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are often utilized as ideal tools for hands-on STEAM education. Over the past few years, open source-based fully autonomous UAVs have been priced below $100. This fact also has allowed UAV Research and Development (R&D) to bring reverse innovation in education. This paper introduces our projects contributing to local communities, including R&D and STEAM educational programs that exploit open-source UAV platforms. We describe three examples of STEAM educational programs using UAV technologies: a three-day scratch-build UAV workshop at the Kirirom Institute of Technologies in Cambodia, a sailing robot development project at a private STEAM education and fabrication lab for children, VIVISTOP Kashiwanoha in Chiba, Japan, and an ongoing project of UAV R&D at Japan Aviation Academy whose framework is going to be extended to a workshop for local children in Ishikawa, Japan, with a local board of education.