Due to Covid-19, the University of Iowa is in its third semester of online learning. Various laboratories and classes have had to identify new effective learning tools to keep the standards of the university instruction. The Modern Robotics and Automation class focuses on teaching students the basics of robot kinematics and automation, through analytical classes and hands-on laboratories. Before Covid-19, the laboratories consisted of groups of five to seven students under the teaching assistants’ supervision. Students used to get the opportunity to jog and program two KUKA robots, the KR6 R700(KORE) and the LBR iiwa 14 R820. However, due to the large class size and the number of labs, in-person laboratories are not viable. It would be unsafe for teaching assistants to hold several weekly labs, and unsafe for students to share a room with five other individuals. Therefore, the in-person labs held in previous semesters would not be possible due to Covid-19.In addition, Covid-19 has allowed us to rethink the pedagogy of robotics laboratories. After surveying the Spring 2020 class, we were able to find some key aspects that could improve the students' experience in the laboratories. The KUKA KORE robot is straightforward to maneuver and is programmed using the simple KUKA Robot Language. Previously, students would create programming applications in the KUKA KORE robot and tested if it executed correctly. However, the KUKA LBR iiwa robot is programmed using the KUKA software Sunrise Workbench, which is JAVA-based. Students reported on the survey that they were unfamiliar with the JAVA programming language.&nbsp;Thus, continuing to use Sunrise Workbench was not feasible, since it would take a large amount of time to teach students the basics of the programming language. Also, students complained about the length and excessive content on the lab manuals, which is a factor we wanted to keep in mind.Thus, after conducting extensive research, we found an effective and simple way to conduct the labs. The software RoboDK was used for all hands-on robotics laboratories. It is an intuitive and functional software in which students can create various robot simulations and Python programs for the KORE and LBR iiwa 14 R820 robots. Since the Modern Robotics and Automation class teaches students the basics of robot kinematics in Python programming, they have the opportunity to assimilate with the RoboDK laboratories. This semester, Spring 2021, we will be sending a survey to get feedback on the new lab system.&nbsp;&nbsp;With the additional data, we will better understand the students' online experience and if there are any additional parts that we can improve on. Therefore, through this research, we investigated a unique method to introduce students to robotics basics by online laboratories.

Introducing Mechanical Engineering Students to Online Robotics Laboratories

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IMECE/IMECE2021/volume/85543

ASME 2021 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE2021)

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