scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
Journal ArticleDOI

Using Multi-Robot Systems for Engineering Education: Teaching and Outreach With Large Numbers of an Advanced, Low-Cost Robot

01 Feb 2013-IEEE Transactions on Education (IEEE)-Vol. 56, Iss: 1, pp 24-33
TL;DR: This robot is a powerful, cheap, robust, and small advanced personal robot; it forms the foundation of a problem-based learning curriculum; and it enables a novel multi-robot curriculum while fostering collaborative team work on assignments.
Abstract: This paper describes the experiences of using an advanced, low-cost robot in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. It presents three innovations: It is a powerful, cheap, robust, and small advanced personal robot; it forms the foundation of a problem-based learning curriculum; and it enables a novel multi-robot curriculum while fostering collaborative team work on assignments. The robot design has many features specific to educators: It is advanced enough for academic research, has a broad feature set to support a wide range of curricula, and is inexpensive enough to be an effective outreach tool. The low cost allows each student to have their own robot for the semester, so they can work on activities outside the classroom. This robot was used in three different classes in which it was the foundation for an innovative problem-based learning curriculum. In particular, the robot has specialized sensors and a communications system that supports novel multi-robot curricula, which encourage student interaction in new ways. The results are promising; the robot was a big success in graduate, undergraduate, and outreach activities. Finally, student assessments indicate a greater interest and understanding of engineering and other STEM majors, and class evaluations were consistently above average.
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Mona is a low-cost, open-source and open-hardware mobile robot, which has been developed to be compatible with a number of standard programming environments and has been successfully used for both education and research at The University of Manchester.
Abstract: Mobile robots are playing a significant role in Higher Education science and engineering teaching, as they offer a flexible platform to explore and teach a wide-range of topics such as mechanics, electronics and software. Unfortunately the widespread adoption is limited by their high cost and the complexity of user interfaces and programming tools. To overcome these issues, a new affordable, adaptable and easy-to-use robotic platform is proposed. Mona is a low-cost, open-source and open-hardware mobile robot, which has been developed to be compatible with a number of standard programming environments. The robot has been successfully used for both education and research at The University of Manchester, UK.

100 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper shows that robotics and mechatronics applied with active methodologies is to be a good means to engage students in STEAM disciplines and thus aid the acquisition of what is commonly known as “21st‐century skills.”
Abstract: Nowadays, companies are demanding better‐prepared professionals to succeed in a digital society, and the acquisition of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM)‐related competencies is a key issue. One of the main problems in this sense is how to integrate STEAM into the current educational curricula. This is not something related to a subject or educational trend but rather to new methodological approaches that can engage students. In this sense, such active methodologies that apply mechatronics and robotics could be an interesting path to pursue. Given this context, the first necessary task in evaluating the potential of this approach is to understand the landscape of the application of robotics and mechatronics in STEAM Education and how active methodologies are applied in this sense. To carry out this analysis in a systematic and replicable manner, it is necessary to follow a methodology. In this case, the researchers employ a systematic mapping review. This paper presents this process and its main findings. Fifty‐four studies have been selected out of 242 total studies analyzed. From these, beyond obtaining a clear vision of the STEAM landscape regarding project topics, we can also conclude that robotics and physical devices have been applied successfully with collaborative methodologies in STEAM Education. Regarding conclusions, this paper shows that robotics and mechatronics applied with active methodologies is to be a good means to engage students in STEAM disciplines and thus aid the acquisition of what is commonly known as “21st‐century skills.”

57 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The results show that MRP helped the course's students to acquire important professional knowledge and skills, experience near-real-world professional realities, and develop their abilities to work both in teams and autonomously.
Abstract: This paper presents the “Multi-Role Project” method (MRP), a broadly applicable project-based learning method, and describes its implementation and evaluation in the context of a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) course. The MRP method is designed around a meta-principle that considers the project learning activity as a role-playing game based on two projects: a learning project and an engineering project. The meta-principle is complemented by five principles that provide a framework to guide the working practices of student teams: distribution of responsibilities; regular interactions and solicitations within the team; anticipation and continuous improvement; positive interdependence and alternating individual/collective work; and open communication and content management. This paper presents the implementation of MRP in a course teaching software engineering, UML language, and project management. The results show that MRP helped the course's students to acquire important professional knowledge and skills, experience near-real-world professional realities, and develop their abilities to work both in teams and autonomously.

57 citations


Cites background from "Using Multi-Robot Systems for Engin..."

  • ...Indeed, it has been established that such projects engage students more strongly than does traditional homework [7], [8], and...

    [...]

References
More filters
Book
01 Jan 1932
TL;DR: The instrument to be described here is not, however, indirect in the usual sense of the word; it does not seek responses to items apparently unrelated to the attitudes investigated, and seeks to measure prejudice in a manner less direct than is true of the usual prejudice scale.
Abstract: THIS paper describes a technique which has been developed for the measurement of race prejudice. This technique differs from most prejudice inventories in that it avoids the following assumptions: (a) that the individual can say, to his own or the investigator's satisfaction, "This is how prejudiced I am," and (b) that, to the extent that the individual can accurately assess his degree of antipathy, he will report honestly the findings of such introspection. Most sociologists would perhaps agree that race attitudes rarely reside on a completely articulate level. Even where the individual holds to intellectual or ideological convictions which would seem to leave no room for out-group antipathies, such do persevere. Thus, we may expect the number of Americans who honestly think themselves "unprejudiced" to be considerably larger than effective research would reveal. Moreover, the number who present themselves as unprejudiced probably exceeds considerably the number who honestly, though often inaccurately, see themselves in this light. Most indirect techniques for the measurement of attitudes have their rationale in observations such as these. The instrument to be described here is not, however, indirect in the usual sense of the word; it does not seek responses to items apparently unrelated to the attitudes investigated. We do, however, seek to measure prejudice in a manner less direct than is true of the usual prejudice scale. In our instrument we seek to measure anti-Negro prejudice. Persons are called upon to respond on social distance scales to whites and Negroes who occupy a variety of occupational positions. The measure of prejudice is derived through the summation of the differences in distance responses to Negroes as opposed to whites in the same occupations. Thus, for lack of a better label,

12,492 citations


"Using Multi-Robot Systems for Engin..." refers methods in this paper

  • ...After the first two iterations of ENGI 128, surveys of engineering literacy were administered using a Likert scale to determine the student opinion toward the r-one, the class, and the design challenges [27], as shown in Fig....

    [...]

Book
01 Jun 1991
TL;DR: A new architecture for controlling mobile robots is described, building a robust and flexible robot control system that has been used to control a mobile robot wandering around unconstrained laboratory areas and computer machine rooms.
Abstract: A new architecture for controlling mobile robots is described. Layers of control system are built to let the robot operate at increasing levels of competence. Layers are made up of asynchronous modules that communicate over low-bandwidth channels. Each module is an instance of a fairly simple computational machine. Higher-level layers can subsume the roles of lower levels by suppressing their outputs. However, lower levels continue to function as higher levels are added. The result is a robust and flexible robot control system. The system has been used to control a mobile robot wandering around unconstrained laboratory areas and computer machine rooms. Eventually it is intended to control a robot that wanders the office areas of our laboratory, building maps of its surroundings using an onboard arm to perform simple tasks.

7,759 citations


"Using Multi-Robot Systems for Engin..." refers background in this paper

  • ...The students had to develop behavioral state machines [36], neighbor recognition, and obstacle avoidance techniques to build an ef-...

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Mar 1986
TL;DR: In this paper, a new architecture for controlling mobile robots is described, which is made up of asynchronous modules that communicate over low-bandwidth channels, each module is an instance of a fairly simple computational machine.
Abstract: A new architecture for controlling mobile robots is described. Layers of control system are built to let the robot operate at increasing levels of competence. Layers are made up of asynchronous modules that communicate over low-bandwidth channels. Each module is an instance of a fairly simple computational machine. Higher-level layers can subsume the roles of lower levels by suppressing their outputs. However, lower levels continue to function as higher levels are added. The result is a robust and flexible robot control system. The system has been used to control a mobile robot wandering around unconstrained laboratory areas and computer machine rooms. Eventually it is intended to control a robot that wanders the office areas of our laboratory, building maps of its surroundings using an onboard arm to perform simple tasks.

7,291 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A theoretical framework for design and analysis of distributed flocking algorithms, and shows that migration of flocks can be performed using a peer-to-peer network of agents, i.e., "flocks need no leaders."
Abstract: In this paper, we present a theoretical framework for design and analysis of distributed flocking algorithms. Two cases of flocking in free-space and presence of multiple obstacles are considered. We present three flocking algorithms: two for free-flocking and one for constrained flocking. A comprehensive analysis of the first two algorithms is provided. We demonstrate the first algorithm embodies all three rules of Reynolds. This is a formal approach to extraction of interaction rules that lead to the emergence of collective behavior. We show that the first algorithm generically leads to regular fragmentation, whereas the second and third algorithms both lead to flocking. A systematic method is provided for construction of cost functions (or collective potentials) for flocking. These collective potentials penalize deviation from a class of lattice-shape objects called /spl alpha/-lattices. We use a multi-species framework for construction of collective potentials that consist of flock-members, or /spl alpha/-agents, and virtual agents associated with /spl alpha/-agents called /spl beta/- and /spl gamma/-agents. We show that migration of flocks can be performed using a peer-to-peer network of agents, i.e., "flocks need no leaders." A "universal" definition of flocking for particle systems with similarities to Lyapunov stability is given. Several simulation results are provided that demonstrate performing 2-D and 3-D flocking, split/rejoin maneuver, and squeezing maneuver for hundreds of agents using the proposed algorithms.

4,693 citations


"Using Multi-Robot Systems for Engin..." refers methods in this paper

  • ...The challenges required the students to develop their own version of distributed algorithms from the robotics literature, such as Follow the Leader [33], Clustering [34], and Flocking [35]....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Problem-based learning (PBL) as mentioned in this paper is an instructional method in which students learn through facilitated problem solving, where the teacher acts to facilitate the learning process rather than to provide knowledge.
Abstract: Problem-based approaches to learning have a long history of advocating experience-based education. Psychological research and theory suggests that by having students learn through the experience of solving problems, they can learn both content and thinking strategies. Problem-based learning (PBL) is an instructional method in which students learn through facilitated problem solving. In PBL, student learning centers on a complex problem that does not have a single correct answer. Students work in collaborative groups to identify what they need to learn in order to solve a problem. They engage in self-directed learning (SDL) and then apply their new knowledge to the problem and reflect on what they learned and the effectiveness of the strategies employed. The teacher acts to facilitate the learning process rather than to provide knowledge. The goals of PBL include helping students develop 1) flexible knowledge, 2) effective problem-solving skills, 3) SDL skills, 4) effective collaboration skills, and 5) intrinsic motivation. This article discusses the nature of learning in PBL and examines the empirical evidence supporting it. There is considerable research on the first 3 goals of PBL but little on the last 2. Moreover, minimal research has been conducted outside medical and gifted education. Understanding how these goals are achieved with less skilled learners is an important part of a research agenda for PBL. The evidence suggests that PBL is an instructional approach that offers the potential to help students develop flexible understanding and lifelong learning skills.

3,823 citations

Trending Questions (2)
How much does the robot Sophia cost?

The low cost allows each student to have their own robot for the semester, so they can work on activities outside the classroom.

When was the Asimo robot made?

The results are promising; the robot was a big success in graduate, undergraduate, and outreach activities.