Undergraduate Robotics Course Research Articles

Responsible Robotics: A Socio-Ethical Addition to Robotics Courses

We are witnessing a rapid increase in real-world autonomous robotic deployments in environments ranging from indoor homes and commercial establishments to large-scale urban areas, with applications ranging from domestic assistance to urban last-mile delivery. The developers of these robots inevitably have to make impactful design decisions to ensure commercially viability, but such decisions have serious real-world consequences. Unfortunately it is not uncommon for such projects to face intense bouts of social backlash, which can be attributed to a wide variety of causes, ranging from inappropriate technical design choices to transgressions of social norms and lack of community engagement. To better prepare students for the rigors of developing and deploying real-world robotics systems, we developed a Responsible Robotics teaching module, intended to be included in upper-division and graduate level robotics courses. Our module is structured as a role playing exercise which aims to equip students with a framework for navigating the conflicting goals of human actors which govern robots in the field. We report on instructor reflections and anonymous survey responses from offering our responsible robotics module in both a graduate-level, and an upper-division undergraduate robotics course at UT Austin. The responses indicate that students gained a deeper understanding of the socio-technical factors of real-world robotics deployments than they might have using self-study methods, and the students proactively suggested that such modules should be more broadly included in CS courses.

Teaching forward kinematics in a robotics course using simulations: transfer to a real-world context using LEGO mindstorms™

Previous studies show that traditional teaching methods such as oral explanations and PowerPoint presentations can be complemented with the use of computer simulations in problem-solving sessions to teach robotics. Nevertheless, these previous works rest upon the assumption that the knowledge that is learned in virtual laboratories transfers to its equivalent real task. The main contribution of this work is to validate that the knowledge obtained by students in an undergraduate robotics course using computer simulations of 3D model robots can be applied to its real-world context. The experimental platform used to run the computer simulations was based on the Simscape Multibody library of the MATLAB™ software. Results show a satisfactory knowledge transfer because more than 75% of the students finished a forward kinematics problem using a physical manipulator built with LEGO Mindstorms™. In addition, the observation analysis of the professor reveals that students reinforced their knowledge previously learned, and their problem-solving and critical thinking skills also improved. In this way, this study demonstrates that the proposed methodology not only helps the transfer of knowledge to the real-world context but also helps to develop student competencies. Future work is needed to replicate the findings in other robotics topics, such as the generation of trajectories, the analysis of the dynamics of manipulators, and the design of various controllers for the actuators of the robot.

Virtual Simulation and Experimental Verification for 3D-printed Robot Manipulators

SUMMARYThe objective of this work is to construct a robot that is based on 3D printing to meet the low-cost and light structures. The Computer-aided-design model is used with LabVIEW to simulate the given trajectory. Users of the simulation of such methodology can preview the simulated motion and perceive and resolve discrepancies between the planned and simulated paths prior to execution of a task. The advantages of this study are the lack of need to mount extra sensors on realistic robot to measure joint space coordinates, simplifying the hardware. These outcomes can also be used in an undergraduate robotics course.

Narrow the Scope to Deepen the Study: A Recommendation for Undergraduate Robotics Courses [Education

Robotics is a highly technical field that incorporates advanced topics from a diverse set of disciplines, including engineering, computer science, and mathematics. With the rapid growth of robotics in both academia and industry, there is an increasing interest in and need for introducing robotics education into undergraduate curricula for these disciplines.

Designing a teaching guide for the use of simulations in undergraduate robotics courses: a pilot study

In the educational area of engineering, there has been research using simulations to illustrate the concepts and exercises seen in class, as in the case of robotics course classes in which simulations have been used to demonstrate theoretical concepts. Results have been inconclusive whether or not the use of state-of-the-art simulations with traditional teaching methods improve the academic performance of students. From the point of view of the authors, some of these negative results could be because teachers do not receive any guidance on how to incorporate the use of simulations in their teaching strategy. This paper reports the evaluation of a platform to simulate industrial robots based on the MATLAB™ and Simulink™ environment. The platform was used by 3 teachers of undergraduate robotics courses. Each teacher was trained how to use the platform. For teachers of groups A and B, in addition to this training, they also received guidance on how to use the platform in their classes, while the teacher of group C freely decided on his own how to use the platform in his classes. In each group, the teacher covered the same topics about forward kinematics, and the same exercises were given to the students to solve during the practical sessions. As a result, students in groups A and B attained better academic performance compared to students of group C. This fact shows that it is necessary to train the professors not only in the use of the platform but also in the incorporation of this technology into their courses.

Creating emergent behaviors

Most undergraduate robotics courses introduce reactive behaviors, behaviors that are not mediated by world knowledge or a world model. What is missing from these courses, however, is the experience of combining reactive behaviors to create emergent behavior, behavior that is not anticipated by the robotocist but generated by the interaction of behaviors and the environment. We discuss two laboratory exercises that introduce reactive behaviors and combine them to produce emergent behaviors.

The Khepera robot and the kRobot class

We discuss a class interface for the Khepera robot that makes the robot an excellent platform for undergraduate robotics courses and robot-based lab exercises in other courses. The interface hides low-level robot-computer communication and permits the building of derived classes that encapsulate related base behaviors relevant for higher-order tasks.

Using Robot Competitions to Promote Intellectual Development

� This article discusses five years of experience using three international mobile robot competitions as the foundation for educational projects in undergraduate and graduate computer science courses. The three competitions—(1) AAAI Mobile Robot, (2) AUVS Unmanned Ground Robotics, and (3) IJCAI RoboCup—were used in different years for an introductory undergraduate robotics course, an advanced graduate robotics course, and an undergraduate practicum course. Based on these experiences, a strategy is presented for incorporating competitions into courses in such a way as to foster intellectual maturation as well as learn lessons in organizing courses and fielding teams. The article also provides a classification of the major robot competitions and discusses the relative merits of each for educational projects, including the expected course level of computer science students, equipment needed, and costs.