Mobile Robotics

The book is a collection of ten scholarly articles and reports of experiences and perceptions concerning pedagogical practices with mobile robotics.“This work is funded by CIEd – Research Centre on Education, project UID/CED/01661/2019, Institute of Education, University of Minho, through national funds of FCT/MCTES-PT.

Mechatronic Systems

Mechatronics, the synergistic blend of mechanics, electronics, and computer science, has evolved over the past twenty five years, leading to a novel stage of engineering design. By integrating the best design practices with the most advanced technologies, mechatronics aims at realizing high-quality products, guaranteeing at the same time a substantial reduction of time and costs of manufacturing. Mechatronic systems are manifold and range from machine components, motion generators, and power producing machines to more complex devices, such as robotic systems and transportation vehicles. With its twenty chapters, which collect contributions from many researchers worldwide, this book provides an excellent survey of recent work in the field of mechatronics with applications in various fields, like robotics, medical and assistive technology, human-machine interaction, unmanned vehicles, manufacturing, and education. We would like to thank all the authors who have invested a great deal of time to write such interesting chapters, which we are sure will be valuable to the readers. Chapters 1 to 6 deal with applications of mechatronics for the development of robotic systems. Medical and assistive technologies and human-machine interaction systems are the topic of chapters 7 to 13.Chapters 14 and 15 concern mechatronic systems for autonomous vehicles. Chapters 16-19 deal with mechatronics in manufacturing contexts. Chapter 20 concludes the book, describing a method for the installation of mechatronics education in schools

Invention Pedagogy – The Finnish Approach to Maker Education

This collection, edited and written by the leading scholars and experts of innovation and maker education in Finland, introduces invention pedagogy, a research-based Finnish approach for teaching and learning through multidisciplinary, creative design and making processes in formal school settings. The book outlines the background of, and need for, invention pedagogy, providing various perspectives for designing and orchestrating the invention process while discusses what can be learnt and how learning happens through inventing. In addition, the book introduces the transformative, school-level innovator agency needed for developing whole schools as innovative communities. Featuring informative case study examples, the volume explores the theoretical, pedagogical, and methodological implications for the research and practice of invention pedagogy in order to further the field and bring new perspectives, providing a new vision for schools for decades to come. Intermixing the results of cutting-edge research and best practice within STEAM-education and invention pedagogy, this book will be essential reading for researchers, students, and scholars of design and technology education, STEM education, teacher education, and learning sciences more broadly

Invention Pedagogy – The Finnish Approach to Maker Education

This collection, edited and written by the leading scholars and experts of innovation and maker education in Finland, introduces invention pedagogy, a research-based Finnish approach for teaching and learning through multidisciplinary, creative design and making processes in formal school settings. The book outlines the background of, and need for, invention pedagogy, providing various perspectives for designing and orchestrating the invention process while discusses what can be learnt and how learning happens through inventing. In addition, the book introduces the transformative, school-level innovator agency needed for developing whole schools as innovative communities. Featuring informative case study examples, the volume explores the theoretical, pedagogical, and methodological implications for the research and practice of invention pedagogy in order to further the field and bring new perspectives, providing a new vision for schools for decades to come. Intermixing the results of cutting-edge research and best practice within STEAM-education and invention pedagogy, this book will be essential reading for researchers, students, and scholars of design and technology education, STEM education, teacher education, and learning sciences more broadly

A Service Robot for Navigation Assistance and Physical Rehabilitation of Seniors

The population of the advanced countries is ageing, with the direct consequence that an increasing number of people will have to live with sensitive, cognitive and physical disabilities. People with impaired physical ability are not confident to move alone, especially in crowded environment and for long journeys, highly reducing the quality of their life. We propose a new generation of robotic walking assistants whose mechanical and electronic components are conceived to optimize the collaboration between the robot and its users. We will apply these general ideas to investigate the interaction between older adults and a robotic walker, named FriWalk, exploiting it either as a navigational or as a rehabilitation aid. For the use of the FriWalk as a navigation assistance, the system guides the user securing high levels of safety, a perfect compliance with the social rules and non-intrusive interaction between human and machine. To this purpose, we developed several guidance systems ranging from completely passive strategies to active solutions exploiting either the rear or the front motors mounted on the robot. The common strategy at the basis of all the algorithms is that the responsibility of the locomotion belongs always to the user, both to increase the mobility of elder users and to enhance their perception of control over the robot. This way the robot intervenes only whenever it is strictly necessary not to mitigate the user safety. Moreover, the robotic walker has been endowed with a tablet and graphical user interface (GUI) which provides the user with the visual indications about the path to follow. Since the FriWalk was developed to suit the needs of users with different deficits, we conducted extensive human-robot interaction (HRI) experiments with elders, complemented with direct interviews of the participants. As concerns the use of the FriWalk as a rehabilitation aid, force sensing to estimate the torques applied by the user and change the user perceived inertia can be exploited by doctors to let the user feel the device heavier or lighter. Moreover, thanks to a new generation of sensors, the device can be exploited in a clinical context to track the performance of the users' rehabilitation exercises, in order to assist nurses and doctors during the hospitalization of older adults