4,551 research outputs found
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
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 Papertâs Constructionism theory defining learning as being more effective when students are âconstructingâ or âdoingâ 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
Symbol Emergence in Robotics: A Survey
Humans can learn the use of language through physical interaction with their
environment and semiotic communication with other people. It is very important
to obtain a computational understanding of how humans can form a symbol system
and obtain semiotic skills through their autonomous mental development.
Recently, many studies have been conducted on the construction of robotic
systems and machine-learning methods that can learn the use of language through
embodied multimodal interaction with their environment and other systems.
Understanding human social interactions and developing a robot that can
smoothly communicate with human users in the long term, requires an
understanding of the dynamics of symbol systems and is crucially important. The
embodied cognition and social interaction of participants gradually change a
symbol system in a constructive manner. In this paper, we introduce a field of
research called symbol emergence in robotics (SER). SER is a constructive
approach towards an emergent symbol system. The emergent symbol system is
socially self-organized through both semiotic communications and physical
interactions with autonomous cognitive developmental agents, i.e., humans and
developmental robots. Specifically, we describe some state-of-art research
topics concerning SER, e.g., multimodal categorization, word discovery, and a
double articulation analysis, that enable a robot to obtain words and their
embodied meanings from raw sensory--motor information, including visual
information, haptic information, auditory information, and acoustic speech
signals, in a totally unsupervised manner. Finally, we suggest future
directions of research in SER.Comment: submitted to Advanced Robotic
Implementing a Robotics Competition at the Harry Fultz Institute
Robotics competitions are a useful teaching tool, allowing students to apply what they learn in class and helping them develop social skills through teamwork. In cooperation with the Harry Fultz Institute in Tirana, Albania our team implemented a robotics competition for high school students. We created and taught lessons on electronics, programming and mechanics to guide teams of student through the robotics design process. As students faced challenges constructing their robots we provided guidance through mentorship. Overall, the element of competition motivated the students and fostered a sense of achievement. Using student feedback, we refined our teaching methods and created a plan to expand and improve the Savage Soccer competition for the future
Open-Source Drone Programming Course for Distance Engineering Education.
This article presents a full course for autonomous aerial robotics inside the RoboticsAcademy framework. This âdrone programmingâ course is open-access and ready-to-use for any teacher/student to teach/learn drone programming with it for free. The students may program diverse drones on their computers without a physical presence in this course. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) applications are essentially practical, as their intelligence resides in the software part. Therefore, the proposed course emphasizes drone programming through practical learning. It comprises a collection of exercises resembling drone applications in real life, such as following a road, visual landing, and people search and rescue, including their corresponding background theory. The course has been successfully taught for five years to students from several university engineering degrees. Some exercises from the course have also been validated in three aerial robotics competitions, including an international one. RoboticsAcademy is also briefly presented in the paper. It is an open framework for distance robotics learning in engineering degrees. It has been designed as a practical complement to the typical online videos of massive open online courses (MOOCs). Its educational contents are built upon robot operating system (ROS) middleware (de facto standard in robot programming), the powerful 3D Gazebo simulator, and the widely used Python programming language. Additionally, RoboticsAcademy is a suitable tool for gamified learning and online robotics competitions, as it includes several competitive exercises and automatic assessment toolspost-print5214 K
Makers at School, Educational Robotics and Innovative Learning Environments
This open access book contains observations, outlines, and analyses of educational robotics methodologies and activities, and developments in the field of educational robotics emerging from the findings presented at FabLearn Italy 2019, the international conference that brought together researchers, teachers, educators and practitioners to discuss the principles of Making and educational robotics in formal, non-formal and informal education. The editorsâ analysis of these extended versions of papers presented at FabLearn Italy 2019 highlight the latest findings on learning models based on Making and educational robotics. The authors investigate how innovative educational tools and methodologies can support a novel, more effective and more inclusive learner-centered approach to education. The following key topics are the focus of discussion: Makerspaces and Fab Labs in schools, a maker approach to teaching and learning; laboratory teaching and the maker approach, models, methods and instruments; curricular and non-curricular robotics in formal, non-formal and informal education; social and assistive robotics in education; the effect of innovative spaces and learning environments on the innovation of teaching, good practices and pilot projects
An early start in robotics: K-12 case-study
This paper describes a study carried out with K-12 students. This study is focused on understanding the motivation of these students on the use of robots in the Project Area curricular unit and to understand whether they want to continue their studies in technology areas. K-12 students participated in the RoboPartyÂź event, where the main task is to assemble and program a robot. In other words, the students, in a simple and entertaining way and guided by qualified tutors, learned how to build a robot. At the end of the academic year, a questionnaire was applied to identify and evaluate the K-12 students' opinions regarding the experience. The studentsâ reaction to this experience as well to the direct contact with the university environment was quite positive.Fundação para a CiĂȘncia e a Tecnologia (FCT
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