Eli Kolberg

Robotics learning as a tool for integrating science technology curriculum in K-12 schools

Technology literacy for all on one hand and continuous demand for skilled technology engineers and workers on the other hand, poses a challenge to education systems worldwide. Recent years show efforts to integrate technology into all levels of the school curriculum. The work presented here introduces one possible approach to familiarize 5/sup th/ to 6/sup th/ grade pupils with high level technology using a mobile robot as the principal tool in the curriculum. Children construct an open ended, autonomous robot while working in teams (6 per team). Each team is divided into sub-groups that represent the various skills needed for the construction and operation of the robot. They use a flow-chart software as their programming frame. At first, the teams are given simple missions, and as they progress, they are challenged with open-ended, more complex assignments. Each weekly session lasts about three hours of which a third is devoted to knowledge expansion and the rest for testing and construction. During the test phase, pupils perform experiments for deducing device properties (sensor, motor, control method, etc.). They add the device of their choice to their mobile robot system. As a typical open-ended problem, the team explores possible solutions to each problem. Then they are expected to define their solutions and implement Them. At the end of the year there is a contest between robots built by the various teams, to accomplish a predefined task.

Educational Robotics: An Insight into Systems Engineering

SUMMARY The need for engineering educators to influence reform of science-technology education in schools and, especially, contribute in stating technology as a new school subject is argued. The approaches to applying systems theory in education are outlined. An introductory ‘Robotics and Real Time Control Systems’ course has been developed as a possible approach to systems education and insight into engineering. The course concept and the master plan, based on the ‘threaded’ metacurricular approach, are proposed. The stages of design process for the course curriculum are considered. The course has been implemented in a number of high schools in Israel. An example of one project performed by a student team is presented.

Transforming Design Education by Design

Design is a contextualized activity influenced by many factors. In order to understand or teach it, a holistic approach that involves students in actual design activities is required. Often, such educational setup is called problem or project-based learning (PBL). There are many views about implementing PBL. Our approach to design education is different than others in the way we treat design courses as products with constraints and objectives. Following our experience in previous design courses, we set to create the best design course possible in our particular context by carefully designing it using design tools developed in design research. We elaborated the course objectives; observed and analyzed failures of design projects in previous courses; and proposed new design methods that could remedy those failures. The collection of potential design methods was evaluated and six methods were selected as the backbone of the design curriculum. The curriculum we designed was implemented in a mechatronic course for high school students. Careful study with several groups including control demonstrated that our design improves the existing course. We describe the course design; provide some details about the design methods that comprise the design curriculum and some examples of using these methods in the course to ground the discussion. A reader unfamiliar with mechatronic could skip these descriptions. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, we show that there is no single general design methodology. For different products and contexts, different design methodologies should be designed. If we use design methods developed in design research, the methodologies could prove successful. Second, and more specifically, we present a new, possible, and successful design methodology for mechatronics. We are not aware of such comprehensive approach in the literature.Copyright

Robotic Platform for Automated Search and Rescue Missions of Humans

We present a novel type of model incorporating a special remote life signals sensing optical system on top of a controllable robotic platform. The remote sensing system consists of a laser and a camera. By properly adapting our optics and by applying a proper image processing algorithm we can sense within the field of view, illuminated by the laser and imaged by the camera, the heartbeats and the blood pulse pressure of subjects (even several simultaneously). The task is to use the developed robotic system for search and rescue mission such as saving survivals from a fire.

Distance Estimation to Image Objects Using Adapted Scale

--------------------------------------------------------ABSTRACT-------------------------------------------------Distance measurement is part of various robotic applications. There exist many methods for this purpose. In this paper, we introduce a new method to measure the distance from a digital camera to an arbitrary object by using its pose (X,Y pixel coordination and the angel of the camera). The method uses a pre-data that stores all the information about the relation between the pose and the distance of an object to the camera. This process designed for a robot that is a part of a robotic team participating in RoboCup KSL competition. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Date of Submission: 12 January 2017 Date of Accepted: 05 February 2017 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------