Interdisciplinary knowledge integration through an applied mobile robotics course

摘要

In this paper the use of an open mobile robot platform as an innovative educational tool to promote and integrate different interdisciplinary curriculum knowledge is presented. In addition the program and acquired experience of a summer course named `Applied Mobile Robotics' is outlined. The main aim of the course is to integrate different subjects such as electronics, programming, architecture, perception systems, communications, control and trajectory planning by using the educational open mobile robot platform PRIM. The summer course is offered to Electrical and Computer Engineering students at around the time of their final academic year. As a practical approach, most of the educational activities of the course are developed in our university labs. The students are greatly motivated by working on such a robotic platform, which allows them to consolidate their previously acquired knowledge and to extend their complementary curricula. To achieve this, the resolution of real-world approaches is used to increase the students' understanding of fundamental engineering concepts within an interdisciplinary methodology context. Moreover, realistic platforms that incorporate engineering standards and realistic constraints increase student skills and experience through engineering practices.