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Research persons: Professor Vijay Kumar

Location: 3330 Walnut Street, Levine Hall, GRW 470  , Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States

Details

A team from the University of Pennsylvania has found the answer is 'yes,' if the
students design and build the robot themselves.
In a paper presented last week at the American
Society of Mechanical Engineers conference in Las Vegas, researchers from
the University of Pennsylvania outlined an effective way of getting students
interested and excited about science and engineering--teaching them how to
design, build and operate robots. This approach is a departure from traditional
science and engineering education methods, and it suggests a new way of getting
students attracted to these fields early in their academic lives.

Over the past three summers, the
University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and
Applied Mechanics has developed and taught a three-week robotics summer course
as part of the School of Engineering
and Applied Science’s Summer Academy of Applied Science and Technology (SAAST)The
robotics camp, which was developed with funding by the
National Science Foundation (NSF), attracted
more than 20 students from across the world and from as far away as Turkey,
China and the United Kingdom to Philadelphia.

NSF Principal Investigator
Professor Vijay Kumar, doctoral students David J. Cappelleri and James F.
Keller, and technical staff Terry Kientz and Peter Szczesniak designed an
intensive program for the students that immediately got them into a robotics lab
to learn what robots are capable of and how to build them. Throughout the three
weeks, the students heard lectures from leading robotics experts and toured
factories that use advanced robots. The students were also divided into teams
and spent time each day designing and building their own robots.

Because robots are complex systems that integrate several different fields,
including computer science, mechanical engineering and electronics, they are a
good example of applied science and engineering. They can also be exciting and
fun to build and operate.
Robot design competitions are being used at the high school and
undergraduate levels to help students understand how these fields can be used to
produce real-world applications.

This top-down approach to science and engineering education is the reverse of
how these fields are usually introduced to students. The authors note that
typically students must go through years of learning theoretical concepts in
mathematics, physics, and other fields before they are allowed to think about
putting these concepts into practice. Many students, the authors believe, lose
interest in these fields because they must wait so long before experiencing the
excitement and creativity that comes from finding solutions to intriguing
challenges.

To solve this problem, the authors state in the paper that they set out to
create an approach to teaching science and engineering where "students are
introduced first to the applications and systems concepts which then leads to
the teaching of fundamentals."

At the end of the camp, the teams' robots competed against each other by
navigating an obstacle course that tested how well the
robots could
maneuver and pick up and store various objects such as plastic eggs and
hockey pucks. The competition not only gave the students the opportunity to put
what they had learned into action, but also taught them how to work as a group
to solve complicated challenges that have many possible solutions.

The authors say that some of the participants from the first camp are now
studying engineering in college, including three former participants who are
enrolled at Penn.

"This approach to teaching forces us, as educators, to develop lectures and
homework exercises tailored to capstone projects as opposed to creating projects
that support lectures in the classroom," Kumar said.

About Researchers & Contacts:
Mail Address is: Dr.
Vijay Kumar  
Department of Mechanical Engineering & Applied Mechanics
University of Pennsylvania
3330 Walnut Street
Levine Hall, GRW 470  
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Tel: (215) 898-3630
Fax: (215) 573-2048
If you want to see me,
stop by during my

office hours or you can try to find me in the

GRASP Laboratory.

GRASP Laboratory
Levine Hall L402
3330 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6228

Tel: (215) 898.5814
Fax: (215) 573.2048

Editorial Board for Journals

• 
  
  Electronic Journal of Computational Kinematics, 2001 - present.
  


• 
  
  ASME Transactions: Journal of Mechanical Design, 1997-2000.


• 
  
  IEEE Transactions: Robotics and Automation, 1994-1998.