Development of a Laboratory Kit for Robotics Engineering Education Taskin Padir, William Michalson, Greg Fischer, Gary Pollice Worcester Polytechnic Institute Robotics Engineering Program tpadir@wpi.edu
Outline RBE program at WPI Unified Robotics Laboratory Kit Evaluation 2
Robotics at WPI B.S. in Robotics Engineering Approved by the WPI Faculty in fall 2006. M.S. in Robotics Engineering Approved by the WPI Faculty in spring 2009. Ph.D. in Robotics Engineering Due for a WPI Faculty vote on Thursday. The first RBE B.S. program in the United States. The first institution offering both B.S. and M.S. Robotics Engineering programs in the United States. 3
The Robotics Industry New England, and Massachusetts in particular, houses a strong and growing Robotics industry. Sales exceed $1 billion Employ 2,500 in Massachusetts 40% companies are startups or less than 6 years old Average annual growth rate 47% 90% of all hires are local hires 70% plan to hire in next 1 2 years
Robotics Engineering @ WPI 2007, 2009, 2010 199 4 2010 3 5 6 4 5
Unified Robotics Four core courses: RBE2001, RBE2002, RBE3001, RBE3002 Tightly integrated content from all three contributing disciplines Faculty create a truly cross-disciplinary experience Beginning with fundamental concepts in CS, ECE and ME developed in the context of basic follow the instructions mobile robots... culminating in robots that have intelligence, senses, communications and that can navigate
Electives CS 2303 System Programming Concepts CS 3013 Operating Systems CS 3041 Human-Computer Interaction CS 4341 Introduction to Artificial Intelligence CS 4514 Computer Networks ECE 2311 Continuous-time Signal and System Analysis ECE 2312 Discrete-time Signal and System Analysis ECE 3308 Introduction to Wireless Networks ME 3310 Kinematics of Mechanisms ME 4322 Modeling and Analysis of Mechatronic Systems ME 4815 Industrial Robots
Sample Program
RBE Curriculum Introduction to Robotics, RBE1001 Unified Robotics RBE 2001 - Power RBE 2002 - Sensing RBE 3001 - Manipulation RBE 3002 - Navigation 9
RBE Curriculum Software Engineering Embedded Systems Statics Control Systems Electives CS/ECE/ME Algorithms, AI, kinematics, dynamics, signal processing, microelectronics 10
Unified Robotics I-IV Multidisciplinary theory and practice of robotics Robot is the common platform Hands-on Project and laboratory based Demanding Rewarding 11
Unified Robotics 2001-2002 kinematics, stress and strain, pneumatics electrical circuits, electric motors and drive circuits, sensors and signal conditioning embedded systems programming using C 12
Unified Robotics 3001-3002 kinematics, stress and strain, pneumatics electrical circuits, electric motors and drive circuits, sensors and signal conditioning embedded systems programming using C intro to algorithms using Java 13
Unified Robotics 7-week terms 4 hours of lecture + 2 hours of lab per week WPI Plan: Theory and Practice project based-learning, hands-on assignments, commitment to learning outside the classroom. Team-taught 14
Background Courses Taken % of students Calculus I-IV 94-98 % Differential Equations 64 % Linear Algebra 16 % Physics I-II (Mechanics, Electricity) 94-98 % Statics 79 % Introduction to Robotics 85 % Software Packages MathCAD 6 % MATLAB 19 % Excel or equivalent 96 % Computer Programs Scheme 66 % C/C++ 43 % Basic 17 % Other 49 % I cannot write computer code. 13 % 15
RBE2001 Unified Robotics I Class/Lab Topic 1-4 Introduction to Kinematics, Steering Mechanisms, Position Analysis Lab 1 Introduction to Mechanisms 5-6 Introduction to Embedded C programming 7-8 Introduction to Electric Circuits and Measurement Lab 2 Introduction to Electronics 9-10 Introduction to Control Systems, PID controller 11-12 Electric Motors and Drives Lab 3 Applied Kinematics 13-15 More Kinematics, Velocity and Acceleration Analysis Lab 4 DC Motor Drive Circuits and PID Controller 16-18 Software Engineering 19-21 Dynamic Force Analysis, Virtual Work, Lumped Parameter Models Lab 5-7 Term Project: Bringing all together 22-23 More C programming 24-26 Electric and Mechanical Power, Batteries, DC-DC converters, 16
RBE2002 Unified Robotics II Class/Lab Topic 1-3 Properties and Mechanics of Materials Lab 1 Motor Current Sensing and Mechanical Force Analysis 4-5 Instrumentation for Sensors 6-8 Embedded C Programming: Structures and Pointers Lab 2 Strain Gauges and Instrumentation Amplifiers 9-10 Stepper Motors and Drive Circuits 11-12 Sensor Classification and Sensor Characteristics Lab 3-4 Basebot Sensor Integration 13-14 Signal Conditioning 15-17 Sensors for Mobile Robots I 18-21 More Programming in C: Sensing Strategies Lab 5-7 Term Project: Fire Fighting Robot 22-23 Hydraulic and Pneumatic Devices 24-26 A Survey on Sensor Technologies 17
RBE 2001 Final Projects 18
RBE 2002 Final Projects 19
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Video Clip! 21
RBE3001 Unified Robotics III Class/Lab Topic 1-4 Introduction to Embedded Programming Lab 1 AVR Lab IO, Interrupts and Logging 5-8 Control Systems, Motors, Motor Control Lab 2 Single Link Arm 9-12 Two Link Arm Kinematics and Dynamics Lab 3 Two Link Arm 13-15 Ranging Sensors Lab 4 Ranging Sensors 16-19 Non-ranging Sensors Lab 5 Non-Ranging Sensors 20-23 Multi Link Arm Kinematics Lab 6-7 Term Project: Bringing all together 24-26 Error Propagation 22
3001 Lab Kit 23
The Daughter Board 24
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RBE3002 Unified Robotics IV Class/Lab Topic 1-4 Introduction to Java Lab 1 Two-Link Arm (RBE 3001 Lab 3) in Java 5-8 Mobile Robot Kinematics and Locomotion Lab 2 Two-Link Arm Control (Framework Integration) 9-12 Systems Engineering Lab 3 Mobile Platform Development 13-15 Environment Interaction (Hardware and Software) Lab 4 Mobile Robot Locomotion 16-19 Sensor Fusion Lab 5 Sensing and Perception 20-23 World Modeling Lab 6-7 Navigation 24-26 Navigation Planning 26
3002 Platform 27
3002 API 28
Evaluation Faculty feedback Student feedback Industry feedback 29
Course Evaluations 30
Course Evaluations 31
Students 1001 2001-2002 2001-2002 3001-3002 >20 hrs ~62/72 32
Evaluation Content Analysis for Senior Projects Employability Graduate Surveys Employer Surveys 33
Conclusion Presented an overview of the RBE program at WPI. Presented an overview of the RBE lab kit. Unified Robotics courses cover the foundations of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and computer science The focus is on robot applications. Cross-training is essential in all courses. This is still work-in-progress. 34
Q U E S T I O N S?? 35
RBE on YouTube! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6wax5ishuw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo7htcz1afq http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaomiv9yzym 36