Creating Research Opportunities with Robotics Across the Undergraduate STEM Curricula

Abstract

Abstract Creating Research Opportunities with Robotics across the Undergraduate STEM CurriculaThere is a recognized nationwide need to educate next generations of students in Science,Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) disciplines. In response to this challenge,the authors’ institution, College of Engineering, has developed over recent years asophisticated undergraduate software engineering and robotics laboratory for use inembedded systems and related project courses. As a result, a number of teachingmodules have been put in place, with emphasis on complex systems and web-basedaccess. The modules are used to prepare undergrads to develop robotics applications thatcan be used across the undergraduate STEM curricula to encourage students of variousdisciplines to do related research. The projects have a potential impact on advancingteaching in STEM disciplines by connecting the lab and research to multiple STEMrelated courses, including: • Sciences – remote control of experiments in biology, chemistry and physics • Technology – training teachers to do research in robotics education • Engineering – research in software for remote robot operation, and • Math – research in robotics control algorithms.With the robotic equipment currently available in the college’s Software Engineering andRobotics Lab: • CoroBot CL2 robot on wheels (equipped with Kinect sensors), from CoroWare • NAO humanoid robot from Aldebaran Robotics • Three AL5A robotic arms from Lynxmotion • Multiple IntelliBrain bots from RidgeSoft (small robotic vehicles) • Multiple Lego MindStorms NXT2.0 robotic vehicles • Three older generation SCARA robotic armsstudents develop specific skills first, at multiple levels of sophistication, including demos,exercises and assignments, to ensure that the learning process and the acquisition ofknowledge correspond to each student’s respective background. Then, in the researchpart they conduct experiments and full-scale research projects, which result in extensivereports documenting the knowledge acquisition and learning process.