Proposal

Narrative

Smart Robotic Arm for Engineering Education Robotic technology promises an exciting view of the future world and is broadly popular with students. This techfee proposal requests acquisition of a robotic arm for education of undergraduate and graduate students to not only stimulate undergraduate enrollment in OME engineering programs, but also to improve graduate level classes. Furthermore, this robotic platform can be integrated into other courses in the College of Engineering for electrical engineers and computer scientists. The requested robotic arm (QArm) has four actuated joints, a gripper, and a camera. It can be interfaced with Simulink, Python, and Robot Operating System (ROS). It comes with courseware that can educate students about important concepts that will be valuable for industrial applications and will provide a versatile testbed to solidify abstract mathematical concepts that are otherwise difficult to visualize. Therefore, this educational robot will help prepare our engineering students for the workforce and enable them to compete for high quality jobs more effectively. In the OME programs, the specific classes in which the QArm will be used include Intro to Robotics, and undergraduate core courses: Dynamic Systems and Electromechanical Devices. It will also be used in the core graduate course: Advanced Controls. This means that all undergraduate and graduate students in the OME program will use this QArm platform, so it will have a high impact on both the graduate and undergraduate programs. Additional classes in which this robotic arm could be useful include electrical engineering classes such as Robotic Applications and the Python programming class in the computer science program. Therefore, the impact of this techfee proposal to acquire the QArm will be broad, improving the educational experience of thousands of students throughout the college of engineering.

Facilities

No renovations are required. The robotic arm can be placed on a desktop.

Hardware Requirements

The robotic arm (QArm) can be operated with a standard desktop PC, which is requested in the budget.

Software Requirements

Software is provided by the manufacturer and is included as part of the quote.

Personnel Costs

Not applicable.

Other Costs

I request $2,000 to obtain a desktop PC and monitor to operate the QArm. I also request $2,400 in year 3 to upgrade the software license.

Timeline

The QArm can be put to use immediately after it is ordered and received. The robotic platform can be used in numerous engineering, computer science, and directed independent study classes. The QArm will likely be used every semester. The QArm will be relevant certainly for the next 10 years to teach students fundamental concepts regarding robotic control and computer programming.

Sustainability

The maintenance of the QArm is expected to be minimal for the first five years of the lifespan of the robot. We request $2,400 during year 3 of this project to update the software license. If any robotic arm maintenance or software upgrades are required beyond the timeline of this project, the course fees from the classes associated with the QArm will be used to cover those costs.

Resource Matching

Not applicable.

Implementing Organization

College of Engineering