Educational Platform for Robotics - Development Board, Robotic Manipulator Arm and Mobile Platform

No one hardware platform provides all of the tools required to teach a robotics engineering curriculum. We are developing a unified platform specifically designed for multidisciplinary undergraduate robotics education. This arm was successfully used to teach the junior level Robotics Engineering course 'Unified Robotics III' aka RBE 3001. A mobile platform made with common hardware and low level software interface was successfully developed for 'Unified Robotics IV' aka RBE 3002.

See information about our Undergraduate Degree program in Robotics Engineering here: http://robotics.wpi.edu.

We have developed a set of instructional equipment including the RBE development board, a manipulator arm and a mobile platform:

Example project from RBE 3001, Unified Robotics III (Manipulation):

Example project from RBE 3002, Unified Robotics IV (Mapping and Navigation):

Related Publications

1. Padir T, Fischer GS, Chernova S, Gennert MA, A Unified and Integrated Approach to Teaching a Two-Course Sequence in Robotics Engineering, Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics, Vol 23, No 5, pp 748-758, Oct 2011. JRM, PDF
   
2. Padir T, Gennert MA, Fischer GS, Michalson WR, Cobb E, Implementation of an Undergraduate Robotics Engineering Curriculum, ASEE Computers in Education Journal - Special issue on Robotics Education, Vol 1, No 3, pp 92-101, ASEE, Sept. 2010.ASEE
   
3. Fischer GS, Michalson WR, Padir T, Pollice G, Development of a Laboratory Kit for Robotics Engineering Education, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) Symposium, Mar 2010.AAAI, PDF