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Introduction
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics)
education is a power-full tool which it is being more popular these
days.
1
Additionally, the robotics also provides an attractive manner to
transform boring concepts into an amusing learning process. Robotic
kits facilitate the ease with which students can make connections
among STEM disciplines.
2
Games and simple materials are a good
combination with the aim of engaging students about computer
science fundamentals. The article
3
describes a set of learning activities
that were found suitable for non-formal learning environments. In
Yoshihara,
4
the authors present a programming education session
through the production of the game program using Scratch as a
programming environment and Nano board AG as a sensor board. The
robotics is being used as the modernization and improvement for most
of processes. This occurs as result of robots can be easily integrated
within the current industrial processes.
5
Furthermore, the robotics has
become an important tool for the students to be involved in STEM.
Nevertheless, the introduction to the robotics is not a simple task.
First, the robotics combines mechanics, electricity, electronics, and
computer science with the purpose of designing and building robotics
applications. Robots are programmable electromechanical machines
that include sensors to make decisions and adapt to different situations.
Hence, a robotics educational platform promotes easily these skills.
On the other hand, technologies are evolving day by day with
an increasing speed. Now, the students must be familiar with the
technology and the way to get knowledge about programming and use
this kind of devices as they future professional career opportunities.
Every day people is using Internet in order to connect to other people
or with the aim of accessing a wide range of information and as well
as sharing their ideas. According to,
6
in the IoT (Internet of Things)
sphere, Things can be identifed and connected. After that, they will
exchange information and they will make decisions by themselves.
There are lots of IoT based applications which are being developed in
many different felds. An example is
7
within the medical services feld,
where it is demonstrated how to collect, integrate, and interoperate
IoT data fexibly to provide support to emergency medical services.
Furthermore, in Gupta
8
the authors presented IoT applications in
health care domain and connected car domain along with market
segmentation. IoT is just a beginning in this digital era to make our
life better. Authors are working on applying artifcial intelligence
techniques on IoT data for making predictions in the domain connected
car and healthcare applications.
Remote 4-wheeled arduino based robot
Throughout the development of the master thesis,
9
the development
of a four-wheel robot was carried out to be controlled through the
web. This construction includes DC (Direct Current) motors, lights
and Wif. The robot controller is an Arduino UNO board. The power
supply used is a LiPo battery for the controller and the DC motors.
Furthermore, other LiPo battery was used to power the WiFi camera.
When having to drive four DC motors, an Arduino Shield has been used
to control continuous motors stacked on top of the Arduino. Figure 1
shows an image of the 4-wheel robot. This robot is controlled using a
web browser hosted on a PC (Personal Computer). A demonstration is
provided in Youtube (https://youtu.be/oI64VkhQAfM).
Remote humanoid robot based on
programmable logic
The state of the art of the robotics has contributions both by private
companies and by individuals, as well as FPGA (Field Programmable
Gate Array) based systems. In robotics, there are very different felds:
industrial, healthcare, educational and even hobby. Data which is
common in the FPGA-based systems, since in recent years more and
more sectors including such devices in their products. To date, it is
very often to fnd control systems based on microcontrollers because
of its easy accessibility and its simplicity which does not require
Int Rob Auto J. 2017;3(4):338‒341. 338
©2017 Plaza et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially.
From 4 wheeled remote robot to serious
collaborative remote laboratory
Volume 3 Issue 4 - 2017
Pedro Plaza,
1
Elio Sancristobal,
2
German
Carro,
2
Manuel Castro,
2
Manuel Blázquez
2
1
Plaza Robotica, Spain
2
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Spanish
University for Distance Education, Spain
Correspondence: Pedro Plaza, Plaza Robotica, Spain,
Email
Received: November 11, 2017 | Published: November 17,
2017
Abstract
There are many necessities that need to be improved in STEM (Science, Technology,
Engineering and Math) education. The robotics represents a promising educational tool.
Nowadays, robotic education tools arise with the aim of promoting the innovation and the
motivation of the students during the learning process. Robots are becoming more common
in our daily life; thus, it is important to integrate robots at all levels of our society. The
robotics requires several skills such as systems thinking, programming mindset, active
learning, mathematics, science, judgment and decision making, good communication,
technology de-sign, complex problem solving and persistence. These skills can be easily
developed using robotics educational tools. This paper presents the evolution from a
simple remote 4-wheeled robot to a scaled platform currently under development. These
developed platforms are intended to be used for educational purposes in the context of
STEM education.
Keywords: education, programming, robotics, STEM
International Robotics & Automation Journal
Review Article
Open Access