ROBOSIM: An intelligent simulator for robotic systems

The purpose of this paper is to present an update of an intelligent robotics simulator package, ROBOSIM, first introduced at Technology 2000 in 1990. ROBOSIM is used for three-dimensional geometrical modeling of robot manipulators and various objects in their workspace, and for the simulation of action sequences performed by the manipulators. Geometric modeling of robot manipulators has an expanding area of interest because it can aid the design and usage of robots in a number of ways, including: design and testing of manipulators, robot action planning, on-line control of robot manipulators, telerobotic user interface, and training and education. NASA developed ROBOSIM between 1985-88 to facilitate the development of robotics, and used the package to develop robotics for welding, coating, and space operations. ROBOSIM has been further developed for academic use by its co-developer Vanderbilt University, and has been in both classroom and laboratory environments for teaching complex robotic concepts. Plans are being formulated to make ROBOSIM available to all U.S. engineering/engineering technology schools (over three hundred total with an estimated 10,000+ users per year)

Teaching robot modelling and control with RobLib

The paper presents a program for robotics education that runs on standard PC's under the Microsoft Windows environment. The RobLib package is designed for undergraduate students and emphasis the fundamental aspects of robot modelling and control. The software is self-explanatory and uses menus, dialog boxes with figures and context-dependent on-line help. In this perpective, students are motivated to investigate on the workspace, kinematics, dynamics, trajectory planning, position and force control of manipulators. Based on this first experience, further studies on robotics, using more sophisticated packages and concepts, are, then, more attractive from the students point of view.N/

A Robotics Framework for Simulation and Control of a Robotic Arm for Use in Higher Education

Robotic arms have been in common use for a several decades now in many areas from manufacturing and industrial uses to hobby projects and amusement park rides. However, there have been very few attempts to make an inexpensive robot arm with a software stack for use in higher education. This paper will outline a control and interfacing software stack built on the Robot Operating System (ROS) and a simulation of the 5 degree of freedom (DoF) robotic arm

Utilization of Robotics in Higher Education

The use of technology in the classroom has evolved from the most primitive to the widespread use of personal computers. One of the trends in technological advancements to enter the classroom is the use of robotics. The relationship between robotics and education spans many years. This paper details Papert’s Constructionism theory defining learning as being more effective when students are “constructing” or “doing” activities that are personally meaningful. Research includes assessment of experiences of this method of teaching Information Technology through robotics at such institutions as West Point, Reykjavik University and University of South Florida. Based on the experiences reported at the various institutions, authors conclude with recommendations to Bryant College as the college launches an integration of the utilization of robotic components into the Information Technology curriculum to more effectively introduce students to Information Technology concepts

Teaching Autonomous Systems at 1/10th-scale

Teaching autonomous systems is challenging because it is a rapidly advancing cross-disciplinary field that requires theory to be continually validated on physical platforms. For an autonomous vehicle (AV) to operate correctly, it needs to satisfy safety and performance properties that depend on the operational context and interaction with environmental agents, which can be difficult to anticipate and capture. This paper describes a senior undergraduate level course on the design, programming and racing of 1/10th-scale autonomous race cars. We explore AV safety and performance concepts at the limits of perception, planning, and control, in a highly interactive and competitive environment. The course includes an ethics-centered design philosophy, which seeks to engage the students in an analysis of ethical and socio-economic implications of autonomous systems. Our hypothesis is that 1/10th-scale autonomous vehicles sufficiently capture the scaled dynamics, sensing modalities, decision making and risks of real autonomous vehicles, but are a safe and accessible platform to teach the foundations of autonomous systems. We describe the design, deployment and feedback from two offerings of this class for college seniors and graduate students, open-source community development across 36 universities, international racing competitions, student skill enhancement and employability, and recommendations for tailoring it to various settings

Analysis and Observations from the First Amazon Picking Challenge

This paper presents a overview of the inaugural Amazon Picking Challenge along with a summary of a survey conducted among the 26 participating teams. The challenge goal was to design an autonomous robot to pick items from a warehouse shelf. This task is currently performed by human workers, and there is hope that robots can someday help increase efficiency and throughput while lowering cost. We report on a 28-question survey posed to the teams to learn about each team's background, mechanism design, perception apparatus, planning and control approach. We identify trends in this data, correlate it with each team's success in the competition, and discuss observations and lessons learned based on survey results and the authors' personal experiences during the challenge

LearnBot 2.0: A tool for programming teaching and emotion management through robotics

El uso de robots como herramienta para facilitar la educación tecnológica está ganando rápidamente interés. La robótica educativa permite a los estudiantes experimentar situaciones que contribuyen a adquirir estrategias cognitivas para resolver, planificar y ejecutar problemas reales. El robot LearnBot fue diseñado en el área de la robótica educativa para promover el desarrollo del pensamiento computacional en diferentes etapas educativas. LearnBot es una plataforma robótica de bajo coste que se programa utilizando el lenguaje de programación Python. Este trabajo tiene como objetivo desarrollar una versión mejorada de LearnBot para extender esta herramienta robótica a otros usos relacionados con la gestión emocional. Con este fin, utilizando la nueva plataforma robótica, llamada EBO, los estudiantes pueden simular comportamientos emocionales. Además, se ha desarrollado una herramienta de programación específica para EBO, llamada LearnBlock, diseñada para facilitar el uso del robot. LearnBlock proporciona un lenguaje visual a través del cual los niños pueden programar comportamientos en el robot de una manera intuitiva especificando qu´e tiene que hacer el robot cada vez que se produce una situación determinada. El lenguaje se puede extender fácilmente mediante la creación de nuevos bloques asociados a funciones de Python. Además, los programas pueden ejecutarse en el robot físico y en un robot simulado. Ambos, EBO y LearnBlock, son desarrollos abiertos. En este documento, se describen detalladamente los diferentes aspectos del diseño, la implementación y el uso de ambas herramientas educativas. Además, se presenta una revisión de los robots educativos existentes estrechamente relacionados con nuestro proyecto, comparando diferentes aspectos de estas herramientas educativas.The use of robots as tools to facilitate technological education is rapidly gaining interest. The educational robotics allows students to experience situations that contribute to acquire cognitive strategies for solving, planning and execution real problems. The robot LearnBot was designed in the area of educational robotics for promoting the development of computational thinking in different educational stages. LearnBot is a low cost robotic platform which has to be programmed using the Python language. This work aims at developing an improved version of LearnBot to extend this robotic tool to other usages related to emotional management. To this end, using the new robotic platform, called EBO, students can simulate emotional behaviors. In addition, we have developed a specific programming tool for EBO, called LearnBlock, designed for easy usage of the robot. LearnBlock provides a visual language through which children can program robot behaviors in an intuitive way by specifying what the robot has to do whenever a given situation occurs. The language can be easily extended by creating new blocks associated to Python functions. Moreover, LearnBlock programs can run in either the physical robot and a simulated robot. Both, EBO and LearnBlock, are open developments. In this document, the different aspects of the design, implementation and usage of both educational tools are described in detail. In addition, a review of the existing educational robots closely related to our approach is presented, comparing different features these educational tools.Máster Universitario en Ingeniería Informática. Universidad de Extremadur