Penn State Abington
Mobile Robotics Program

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 Overview | Why robots? | Key Initiatives | What's new | Contact

Overview:

The mobile robotics program at Penn State Abington has been in operation since 1996, and fosters the following goals:

  1. Robotics Education: Provide resources to integrate robotics design into the engineering, computer science, and IT curriculum at colleges, universities, and K-12 in order to enhance science and engineering education.  Promote active and collaborative learning, problem-based learning, teamwork, research, project management, entrepreneurship. At Penn State Abington, we have integrated robotics into computer engineering, computer science, freshman engineering design, and information sciences and technology (IST) coursework.
     
  2. Robotics Research: Provide opportunities for undergraduate research in the areas of mobile robotics. Areas of research include mobile robot navigation, artificial intelligence, human-computer interface, innovative educational applications of robotics. Also, provide resources to encourage science fair projects using innovative robotics at the K-12 level.
     
  3. K-12 outreach Support K-12 schools in the Philadelphia, PA region to promote student interest in science, math, IT, engineering and technology careers. Includes student and teacher training and workshops, STEM integration, mentorship, career awareness, community service activities.
     
  4. Robot Design Contests: Develop and host highly-accessible, public, regional robot design competitions and exhibits to promote robotics in the community.  These robot contests and exhibitions provide a focal point for robotics education, research, and outreach activities.

     

Why Robots?

  • Design of robots is highly interdisciplinary and involves mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, artificial intelligence, systems engineering, networking, IT, project management, teamwork, communication skills, and creative problem solving.
  • The hands on, visual nature of robot design is highly motivating for students.
  • Robot design can be easily adapted to meet many educational goals for students of all levels (K-12 and college).
  • Availability of low-cost robotics equipment, software, and support allows robotics to be accessible to a wide audience.

      

Key Educational Initiatives at Abington:

  • Penn State Abington has integrated robot design into several freshman and sophomore engineering courses including: 1) a freshman engineering design course (EDG 100), 2) an introductory computer science course (CMPSC 201C), 3) a Digital Design course, 4) an emerging technologies course for Information Sciences and Technology (IST) students, and 5) an honors robotics course for freshmen and sophomore students at Abington. High School students taking a Penn State college engineering design course also participate in Abington robotics activities.
     
  • Penn State Abington has offered an open, free, robot competition and exhibit in both December and March/April of every year since 1995.  These robot competitions attract a wide range of students from 2nd graders to college seniors to professional engineers.
     
  • Abington recently offered a  2-day hands-on robotics workshops for K-12 teachers in the Philadelphia region, sponsored by the DVIRC.  Summer robot camps for K-12 are also available at the Abington campus.

Events:

  • The annual firefighting robot contest (based on the Trinity College firefighting contest) was held in April of 2008 at the Abington campus. A new search and rescue component was introduced.  See competitions link for more information.
  • Robo-Hoops robot competition will be held in December of 2007 at the Penn State Abington campus.  Next event will be held on December 6, 2008.
  • The Mini Grand Challenge outdoor robot contest was also held in April of 2008., and the next event is planned for spring of 2009.  Check the competitions web link for more details.  Outdoor autonomous robots must navigate campus paths, avoid obstacles, and take off-road detours.
  • Outcomes of the Abington Mini Grand Challenge robot contest and the development of vision-based robotics was presented at the Spring Symposium of the AAAI conference in the educational robotics track at Stanford University campus in March 2007, at the ACM SIGCSE conference in Portland Oregon, and also at the American Society of Engineering Education in Pittsburgh in June of 2008.
  • Abington offered a  2-day hands-on robotics workshops for K-12 teachers in the Philadelphia region, sponsored by the DVIRC in June of 2006.  The focus of the workshop was to demonstrate how robotics can be used to enhance STEM education and career awareness. (See web link for more details).
  • Penn State Abington robotics was represented at the Franklin Institute Tech Fair on Saturday, May 19, 2007
  • Abington "Mini Grand Challenge" robot was exhibited at the National 2005 AAAI (American Association of Artificial Intelligence)  conference in Pittsburgh, PA in July 2005.
  • Penn State Abington presented talk "Using Robots to Teach Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)" at the Montgomery County Science Teachers Association Mini-conference on October 27, 2005.
  • Penn State Abington hosted the 11th annual regional Firefighting robot contest on April 3, 2005.
  • Penn State Abington engineering students demonstrated robots at the SaturnFest event held at the Abington campus in January of 2005.
  • Penn State Abington hosted the  B.E.S.T. robot competition on Sat. Nov. 6, 2004. 16 teams (middle schools and high schools) from the Philadelphia School District participated.
  • Penn State Abington offered a 3-day hands-on robotics workshop for the WIB Teen College at Montgomery County Community College in Pottstown, PA in July of 2004.
  • Penn State Abington presented a robotics lecture/demonstration at the robotics camp at the Franklin Institute Summer Program in June of 2004.
  • Two Abington freshman (engineering and IST majors) earned first place in the expert division of the Trinity College Firefighting Robot Contest (Hartford CT) in April of 2004.
  • The annual regional firefighting robot contest was held at Abington campus on Saturday, April 3, 2004 from 1-4pm.  This is the 10th year that Abington has offered a firefighting robot competition. More info. on this website.
  • Penn State Abington freshman and sophomore engineering students demonstrated robots at the Tech Fair at the Franklin Institute (Phila., PA) on Saturday, January 24, 2004.
  • Penn State Abington engineering students demonstrated robots at the Marsfest event held at the Abington campus on Saturday, January 25, 2004.

 

For more information, contact:


Bob Avanzato
Associate Professor of Engineering
Division of Science and Engineering
Penn State Abington
1600 Woodland Road
Abington, PA 19001
tele: 215-881-7358
email: RLA5@psu.edu