Title: IEEE ICRA 2002 Workshop on Educational Applicatons of Online Robots
1IEEE ICRA 2002Workshop on Educational
Applicatons of Online Robots
- Summary Conclusions by Gerard McKee,
University of Reading, UK -
2Workshop on Educational Applications of Online
Robots
- Chairs
- Matt Stein and Ken Goldberg
- Presentations, Open Discussion and Demonstrations
3Presentations am
- Multimedia Technology for Online Robot Projects,
- Gerard McKee, The University of Reading, UK
- Remote Laboratory Access Through The Internet
- Ilhan Konokseven Aydan Erkmen, Middle East
Technical University - Collaborative Online Teleoperation and the
Tele-Actor for Distance Education, - Ken Goldberg, Berkeley
- Environment for online experimentation and
analysis, - Yves Piquet, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
4Presentations pm
- A Statistical Approach to Tracking Multiple
Moving People with a Mobile Robot and its
Application to Improve Tele-Presence - Wolfram Burgard, University of Freiburg
- Supermedia Enhanced Internet Robots
- Imad Elhajj Ning Xi, Michigan State University
- Networked Robotics/Mechatronics through the
Intelligent Space - Hideki Hashimoto, University of Tokyo
- EventScope A Telescience Interface for
Internet-Based Education, - Peter Coppin, Michael Wagner, CMU.
5Demonstrations
- EventScope (science experiments)
- SysQuake Remote (automatic control)
- plus video sequences.
6Open Discussion
- Five Questions
- What is there to be learned from an Online Robot
experience? - How can interfaces and systems be designed to
foster this learning? - What are the best educational applications/context
s? - How should student experience be evaluated?
- Can a site be designed to lead students through
an experiment and quiz afterward?
7What is there to be learned from an Online Robot
experience?
- I.e. How can online robots contribute to an
educational experience? - It is a thing of interest in itself.
- It is a tool, a medium for exploration.
- It allows us to place the student in a remote
environment. - A technology-centred equivalent of the field
trip. - It has a novelty value.
- What happens when the novelty wears off? How to
we retain the interest of the student.
8How can interfaces and systems be designed to
foster this learning?
- Lively/interactive/animated interfaces
- exploit multimedia technology
- video streaming novel, good quality graphics (3D
models) - intuitive, easy to use.
- The scenarios we create
- They must be relevant and interesting.
- These must capture and carry the audience.
- They must engage the student.
- They must retain the students interest.
9What are the best educational applications/context
s?
- Depends on the educational context
- robotics science (sensors and controls,
architectures, algorithms) - science exploration (physics, chemistry,
geography, biology space programmes (Mars)) - work crews (multi-skill tasks, automation
industrial, space and home applications) - So far, limited sets of contexts
- We need to broaden the range of applications?
- Educational target
- kindergarten, school, college, undergraduate,
graduate, and continuing education, the general
public
10How should student experience be evaluated?
- Educational merit for students
- Updating traditional methods (submission/demonstra
tion of work) - Incorporating new methods (online)
- Developing transferable skills (presentation of
work) - Exploring opportunities (track student
participation) - Maintaining integrity/security (copying
surrogate participation) - Quality of the experience
- Explicit Questionnaires (online, offline, tutor
follow-up) - Implicit Monitor usage of system and the support
environment (e.g. group communication virtual
communities online blackboard systems?)
11Can a site be designed to lead students through
an experiment and quiz afterward?
- Can we do this? Yes.
- Will it be interesting/effective/relevant?
- What are the characteristics of
interesting/challenging scenarios? - The learning metaphor
- rote learning Vs open, learner-centred, etc.
- How do we control the direction/progression of
learning? - Is this important? Where is it important?
12Broad conclusion
- There is considerable depth to the field. There
is much to be discovered? - There are many issues, raising lots of problems.
- There is no one answer, but there are common
frameworks that can be established.
13Online Robots are An important Learning Technology
- Robot systems are instruments that help us
- understand our environment (Science and
Exploration) - manipulate our environment (Work crews and lab.
Assistants) - Robotics Science underpins these possibilities.
- The Internet and Multimedia technology has
created the possibility for a new kind of
learning environment. - Online Robots help us bring to these environments
an active, open-ended learning experience. - Online Robot are an important learning
technology. - Conceptualised as follows
14Online Robots are an important learning technology
15Frameworks
- Online Robot systems offer interactive control of
remote (real or simulated) robotic artifacts,
either - directly via manual controls
- or indirectly via modelling interfaces, simulated
environments and/or educational scenarios
16Frameworks
17Key problems can be identified
- The retention problem
- getting and maintaining interest
- The reset problem.
- The scenario problem.
- The assessment problem.
- The security problem
- access and malicious intent
- The audience problem
18The Reset Problem
- Resetting the environment to a defined state for
the next user. - Laboratory systems
- project development and demonstration
- Robotic laboratory assistants provide one answer
to this problem - Arena/experiment design provides another
19The Scenario Problem
- Developing challenging/interesting educational
scenarios. - What are good, interesting, challenging
scenarios? - Targets of control?
- One or more humans.
- Robot (toys), motors controls
- Simulations/models
- Integration of simulations/models with real robot
systems. - Method of control
- voting, parameter sets, manual driving, scripts,
intelligent control (architectures, sensors and
controls, algorithms), topical module - Author of control - topic/user-led. Open/closed
20The Assessment Problem
- Immediate - automated assessment-as-you-go.
- Off-line delivery submit reports, code, demos.
- Transferable skills - e.g. presentation skills.
- Present material via the web.
- Acknowledging receipt/assessment of work.
- Providing students with the tools to return work.
- Annotation scripts, WWW pages, etc.
21The Security Problem
- Avoiding cheating.
- Avoiding surrogates.
- Controlling access.
- Defending against malicious intent.
- robots
- web sites
22The Audience Problem
- Who is the target audience?
- kindergarten, college level students
- undergraduate, graduate level
- continuing education and professional development
- general members of the public
- Getting teachers on board.
- Educational kits (projects, educational
materials, challenges)
23Additional Issues
- Re-use of research facilities.
- Turning existing research environments into
educational tools. Reuse. After-life funding. - Quality of service
- Delivering an appropriate server to the user!
Bandwidth problems, networking problems,
time-delays. - Education as an application of robotics
technology. - Enhancing the presence within the remote
environment. A target application of robotics
techniques.
24Action Points
- Encourage the development of online robot
systems - Educational Challenges
- Online scenarios
- Create online environments
- Provide forums for collecting experience/practice/
facilities - WWW sites
- Workshops Conferences
- Publications (books, special issues)
- Online robot portal online science programme.
- Address the problems
25Conclusions
- There exists educational technologies that can be
brought to bear on the educational application of
online robots. - There is much that online robots can bring to
this educational environment. - There is considerable scope for creating
robot-centred learning technologies. - Presentation application are important.