Mhd. Aiman Al Akkad, PhD, Assoc. Prof.

Faculty member in the Computer Engineering and Automation Dept.

Tel. +(963) 11 6617680, e-mail: aimanakkad@yandex.ru

Faculty of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering

Damascus University

Robotics as an efficient tool in education

Abstract:

Finding a suitable and illustrative means to explain theoretical concepts and their applications was always an aim of educators in academic institutions. Therefore in this paper, we show the importance of using Robotics in this context, we suggest the scope of curriculum which might be covered, and the practical lab which might be used to enable teachers in universities to explain the scientific content in a tangible way. Then we show how we are applying this in our institution and our continuous plan in this field. Then we give a conclusion about the importance of holding up Robotics competitions between universities in the frame of education enhancement and international educational integration.

Keywords:

Educational tools, Robotics labs, tangible illustration, international educational integration, Robotics competitions.

1. Introduction:

Nowadays institutions face an increased need for quality in higher education systems due to international integration, and competition between institutions to offer better education and services. Therefore, we not only need a hierarchy of well-qualified administration personnel to apply the necessary quality standards, but also we need to apply effective techniques and learning environments to convey the scientific content of the curriculum in a concrete way, so here comes the role of Robotics as an effective tool in education.

Methods of using robotics in education commonly develop problem solving strategies, formalization of thought, socialization, and acquisition of certain concepts through interactive and constructive activities, but they differ in their fields of application, objectives and methodologies.

A beneficial effect of Robotics in education is the development of motivating activities with different students, who are expected to build their knowledge creatively according to their own view of the world, using new ideas and technologies in an actual way since Robotics offers a bridge between abstraction and reality. The teachers role in the learning process is a stimulator, and the teacher-student interaction differs from the classical model of information transfer. Although this is effective and attractive, teachers need improving their skills to deal with students and the illustrative tools.

The idea is also very interesting for establishing links and cooperation between universities, so new applications are being developed in a distance learning context for distance collaborative work and remote control of physical devices, besides taking part in Robotics competitions.

2. Covered curriculum:

The curriculum which can be covered may consist of advanced subjects as: Robotic systems and programmable machines, Computer vision, Natural languages processing , Artificial intelligence, Expert systems, and Neural networks. In addition to supportive subjects as: Physics, Mathematics, Mechanics, Electronics, Communication, Embedded systems, Microcontroller systems, and Parallel systems.

With these subjects we can clear important concepts like: the coordinate systems, motion description of the mechanism, both the linear and angular velocities, defining singularities of the mechanism, forces and torques and achieving static equilibrium of the mechanism, linear and nonlinear control, mass distribution and the dynamics of the mechanism, and trajectory generation, besides concepts like location and position measuring errors in mobile robots, and motion planning algorithms.

Robotic perception can be handled, especially topics related to vision, 3D modeling, objects recognition, and robotic navigation and obstacle avoidance.

Also, choosing different robots, emulating them and realizing them practically can be achieved using hardware systems and appropriate artificial intelligence algorithms, neural networks, supervised and unsupervised learning techniques, artificial immune system algorithms, and building expert systems as well.