Robotics in Education (eBook)

Preface 6
Organization 8
Committee 8
Co-Chairpersons 8
International Programme Committee 8
Local Conference Organization 9
Sponsors 10
Contents 11
Comprehensive Educational Robotics Activities 14
TechColleges 15
1 Introduction 15
2 Current Situation of Robotics in Education 16
3 Education System of Germany 16
4 Concept 17
4.1 School-Level-TechCollege 18
4.2 School-Level-TechCollege - Units 20
4.3 School-Level-TechCollege - Technical Approach 20
4.4 School-Level-TechCollege - Educational Approach 22
4.5 Cooperation-/University-Level-TechCollege 22
5 Evaluation 23
5.1 Socio-Biographical Background 23
5.2 Attitude Towards Studying 24
5.3 Attitude Towards the Teaching Profession 24
5.4 Skills in the Context of TechColleges 24
5.5 Evaluation of School-Level-TechCollege 24
6 Conclusion 25
References 25
Robotics Peer-to-Peer Teaching Summer School Project Involving University Students, Summer Interns and Middle School Students 27
Abstract 27
1 Introduction and Motivation 27
2 Background and Related Research 28
3 Structure 28
3.1 Interns 29
3.2 Middle School Students – “Robots for Kids” 30
4 Development of the Curriculum 31
4.1 Curriculum for Summer Interns 31
4.2 Curriculum for Middle School Students (“Robots for Kids”) 33
5 Experiences 34
5.1 Educational Aspects 34
5.2 Other Aspects 35
5.3 Financial Aspects 36
6 Conclusion and Future Work 36
References 37
Methods for Managing Student-Driven Robotics Research 38
1 Introduction 38
2 Categories of Student-Driven Projects at the Technische Universität Berlin 39
2.1 Problem-Based Lecture Courses 39
2.2 Space-Related Experiments 41
2.3 Student-Driven Research Projects 41
3 Challenges of Student-Driven Robotics Projects and Methods for Managing Them 43
3.1 Working in Interdisciplinary Teams 43
3.2 Low Funding 44
3.3 Drain of Expertise 45
3.4 Different Levels of Expertise 46
3.5 Low Commitment and Unpredictable Situations 46
3.6 Quality Management for Student Projects 47
3.7 Keeping a Consistent Work-Flow 48
4 Conclusion 48
References 49
Robotics Education in Saint Petersburg Secondary School 50
1 Introduction 50
2 About Robotics Center 52
3 Courses 52
3.1 Basic Robotics Courses 53
3.2 Electronics Courses 55
3.3 Applied mechanics courses 56
3.4 Programming Courses 56
4 Robofinist 57
5 Activities: Competitions, Camps 58
6 Project ``OWC 2016'' 58
7 Conclusion 59
References 60
Workshops, Curricula and Related Aspects 62
LEGO WeDo Curriculum for Lower Secondary School 63
Abstract 63
1 Introduction 63
2 Methodology 63
3 Curriculum with LEGO WeDo 65
3.1 Activity 1: What Is a Robot? 65
3.2 Activity 2: Making a Dream Car 65
3.3 Activity 3: Even Cottage on Robotic Foot Can Dance 66
3.4 Activity 4: My Own First Assistant 66
3.5 Activity 5: Matthew’s Hovercraft from the Future 67
3.6 Activity 6: Martina’s Vision of Lost Vehicle 68
3.7 Activity 7: The Creation of the Best Helper in the World 69
3.8 Activity 8: The Movement of Modern Turtle 69
3.9 Activity 9: Designing a Fairy Tale 70
3.10 Activity 10: Creating a Fairy Tale 70
3.11 Activity 11: Fairy Tale for Everyone 71
4 Findings 71
5 Conclusion 73
References 73
Pythagorean Approximations for LEGO: Merging Educational Robot Construction with Programming and Data Analysis 75
1 Introduction 75
2 LEGO Basics 76
3 Near-Integral Triples 77
4 Half-Unit Spacing 81
5 Quarter-Unit Gear Spacing 83
6 Gear Ratios 83
7 Conclusion 85
References 85
Teaching Robotics Concepts to Elementary School Children 87
1 Introduction 87
2 Literature Review 87
3 The Robot and Its Software Environment 88
3.1 The Thymio Robot 88
3.2 The VPL Graphical Programming Environment 89
3.3 CS Concepts Taught 90
4 Research Methodology 90
4.1 Rationale 90
4.2 Research Question 90
4.3 The Robotics Class 90
4.4 A Taxonomy of Levels of Understanding 91
4.5 The Questionnaires 91
5 Results 92
5.1 Observations 92
5.2 The Questionnaires 93
6 Discussion 94
7 Conclusions 94
A Questions from the Questionnaires 95
References 96
The Effect of the Programming Interfaces of Robots in Teaching Computer Languages 98
1 Introduction 98
2 Proposed Methods 100
2.1 Educational Robot Platform 100
2.2 Programming Interfaces 101
2.3 Teaching and Assessment Methodology 102
2.4 Experiments 105
3 Conclusion 108
References 108
Creativity and Contextualization Activities in Educational Robotics to Improve Engineering and Computational Thinking 110
Abstract 110
1 Introduction 110
2 Framework 111
3 Learning Goals 112
4 Methodology 112
4.1 Methodological Differences 114
5 Evaluation 116
5.1 Assessment of Competence 117
5.2 Assessment of Contents 118
6 Results 119
7 Conclusions 120
Acknowledgment 121
References 121
Educational Robotics for Communication, Collaboration and Digital Fluency 123
Abstract 123
1 Background 123
2 Workshop Design 124
2.1 Pedagogical Approach 124
2.2 Workshop Setting 125
2.3 Robotics Artefacts 127
2.4 Digital Artefacts 128
2.5 21st Century Skills 128
3 Evaluation 129
4 Findings 130
5 Conclusions 132
5.1 Feedback from Schools and Educational Institutions 133
5.2 Current Work and Future Prospects 134
Acknowledgements 135
References 135
Using Robotics to Foster Creativity in Early Gifted Education 136
Abstract 136
1 Introduction 136
2 Theoretical Background/State of the Art 137
3 Participants 138
4 Lessons Design 138
5 Results and Student Reception Discussion 139
6 Conclusion 140
References 141
The Evaluation of Robotics Activities for Facilitating STEM Learning 142
1 Introduction 142
2 Previous Work 143
3 Theoretical Background 143
4 Methodology 144
4.1 Research Questions 144
4.2 Context and Populations 144
4.3 Research Instruments and Data Analysis 144
5 Results and Discussion 145
5.1 The First Research Question: (a) Changes in Attitudes 145
5.2 The First Research Question: (b) Do Students Choose STEM? 146
5.3 The Second Research Question 146
6 Conclusions 147
References 147
Project-Based Learning Approaches 148
MuseumsBot - An Interdisciplinary Scenario in Robotics Education 149
1 Introduction 149
2 Related Work 150
3 Creating a Robot from Scratch 150
3.1 Museum Scenario 151
3.2 Soft Skills 152
3.3 Technical Skills 153
3.4 Objectives 154
4 Evaluation of MuseumsBot Project 155
4.1 Soft Skills 155
4.2 Technical Skills 156
5 Comparison of Approaches and Lessons Learned 157
6 Conclusion 159
References 159
Marine Robotics: An Effective Interdisciplinary Approach to Promote STEM Education 162
1 Introduction 162
2 GUPPIE Evolution 164
3 GUPPIE Curriculum Development and Implementation 167
3.1 Program Content 167
3.2 Program Evaluation 170
4 Discussion, Conclusion and Future Work 172
References 173
Designing Robotics Student Projects from Concept Inventories 174
Abstract 174
1 Introduction 174
2 Projects in University Curricula 175
3 Concept Inventories – The Robotics CI Example 175
4 Requirements for Student Projects Derived from Concept Inventories 179
5 Student Projects Derived from CIs 181
5.1 4-DOF Bipedal Robot 181
5.2 Mixed-Reality Robots 184
6 Conclusions and Outlook 187
References 187
Teaching Research Methodologies with a Robot in a CS Lab Course 188
1 Introduction 188
2 Conception 190
2.1 Learning Objectives 190
2.2 Technical Goal 190
2.3 Assignments and Work Load 192
2.4 Course Structure 192
2.5 Motivation and Competitive Environment 193
3 2015/2016 Participants and Schedule 194
3.1 Participants 194
3.2 Schedule 194
4 Findings and Lessons Learned 195
4.1 Observations and Interviews 196
4.2 Monitoring 197
5 Conclusion and Future Work 198
References 199
Teaching Robotics for Computer Science Students 201
Abstract 201
1 Introduction 201
2 The Characteristics of the Robotics Course 202
3 Students’ Performance 204
4 Conclusion 206
References 206
Technologies for Educational Robotics 207
TUC-Bot: A Microcontroller Based Robot for Education 208
1 Introduction 208
1.1 The Task 209
1.2 Target Audience 210
2 Hardware 211
2.1 History 213
3 Software-Library 214
4 Learning Objectives 215
4.1 Structure of the Course 216
5 Continuous Improvement 218
6 Conclusion 220
References 220
Open Source Robotics Course at Engineering: Infrastructure and Methodology 221
1 Introduction 221
2 Low-Cost Open Source Robotic Platform 223
3 Course Content and Teaching Methodology 225
4 Results 229
5 Conclusions 231
References 232
The Robobo Project: Bringing Educational Robotics Closer to Real-World Applications 233
Abstract 233
1 Introduction 233
2 Robobo Hardware 235
3 Robobo Software 238
3.1 Software Architecture 238
3.2 Robot Programming 239
4 Robobo Interactive Lessons 240
4.1 Simon Says Musical 240
4.2 Robobo Pet 241
5 Conclusions 243
Acknowledgements 244
References 244
Architectural Overview and Hedgehog in Use 245
1 Introduction 245
2 Related Works 245
3 Design and Architecture 246
3.1 Hardware Controller (HWC) 246
3.2 Software Controller (SWC) 247
3.3 User Programs and Hedgehog Protocol 248
3.4 Hedgehog IDE 249
3.5 Maker Aspects and Open Source 250
4 Use Cases 251
4.1 Visual Programming Using Pocket Bot and Blockly 251
4.2 Textual Programming in Python 252
4.3 Distributed and Concurrent Applications 253
4.4 Microcontroller Programming 253
4.5 Project Participation by Students 254
5 Workshop Experiences 254
6 Conclusion and Future Work 255
References 256
Open-Source Robotic Manipulator and Sensory Platform 257
1 Introduction 257
2 Platform 258
2.1 Hardware 259
2.2 Software 260
3 Use Cases 261
4 Conclusion 262
References 262
OTO -- A DIY Platform for Mobile Social Robots in Education 264
1 Introduction 264
2 Application in Educational Settings 265
3 Design of the OPSORO Hardware 265
4 Software Architecture 267
5 Conclusion and Future Work 268
References 269
An Elementary Science Class with a Robot Teacher 270
Abstract 270
1 Introduction 270
2 RoboThespian 271
3 Programming Teaching Behaviors 272
4 Classroom Setting 273
5 Evaluation Study 276
5.1 Acquired Concepts 276
5.2 Students’ Perceptions 277
5.3 Differences in Lesson Outcomes 278
6 Discussion and Conclusion 279
Acknowledgments 279
References 280
Design of Robot Teaching Assistants Through Multi-modal Human-Robot Interactions 281
1 Introduction 281
2 Related Work 282
3 Methodology 283
4 Formalism 284
5 On-Line Execution of the Interaction Template 286
6 Implementation and Experiment 287
6.1 Experimental Validation 291
7 Conclusions 291
References 292
Virtual Environments, Cloud Tools and Artificial Intelligence 294
eduMorse: An Open-Source Framework for Mobile Robotics Education 295
1 Introduction 295
2 Related Works 297
3 Framework Overview 297
4 The System Architecture 299
4.1 Communication Server 300
4.2 Scoring System 300
5 Configuration of the Simulation 301
6 Example of Application 302
6.1 Definition of the Map 303
6.2 Interface Between Robot and Simulator 303
7 Usage in Undergraduate Course 304
8 Conclusions 305
References 306
Teaching Robotics with Cloud Tools 307
1 Introduction 307
2 Various Programs Useful for Robotics 308
2.1 3D Programs 309
2.2 Programming Tools 309
2.3 MyModelRobot Development 311
3 Cloud Tools Pros and Cons 313
3.1 The Pros of Cloud Tools 313
3.2 The Cons of Cloud Tools 314
3.3 Recommendations 314
4 Conclusion 315
References 315
Needs, Opportunities and Constraints on the Way to the Wide Introduction of Robotics to Teaching at Secondary Vocational Schools 317
Abstract 317
1 Introduction 317
2 Background and Aims of the RUSOS Project 318
3 Analyses of Needs and Requirements of Target Groups 319
4 RUSOS Training System 320
4.1 Educational-Training ICT Platform 320
4.2 E-Learning Course 320
4.3 Virtual Lab with Industrial and Service Robots 321
5 Future Development 321
6 Summary 321
Acknowledgements 321
References 322
An Open Robotics Environment Motivates Students to Learn the Key Concepts of Artificial Neural Networks and Reinforcement Learning 323
1 Introduction 323
2 Background 324
2.1 Related Work 325
2.2 Empirical Modelling and Making Construals 326
2.3 JS-Eden and OLE-AI 327
3 Pilot Study 328
3.1 Research Setting 328
3.2 Materials and Methods 330
3.3 Results 330
4 Conclusions 332
5 Discussion and Future Work 332
References 333
Author Index 335