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ROBOTICS IN MANUFACTURING (JN PIRES, SECTION EDITOR)
Learning Robotics: a Review
A.Fernando Ribeiro
1
&Gil Lopes
1
Published online: 18 January 2020
#Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract
Purpose of Review With the growing interest for STEM/STEAM, new robotic platforms are being created with different
characteristics, extras, and options. There are so many diverse solutions that it is difficult for a teacher/student to choose the
ideal one. This paper intends to provide an analysis of the most common robotic platforms existent on the market. The same is
happening regarding robotic events all around the world, with objectives so distinctive, and with complexity from easy to very
difficult. This paper also describes some of those events which occur in many countries.
Recent Findings As the literature is showing, there has been a visible effort from schools and educators to teach robotics from
very young ages, not only because robotics is the future, but also as a tool to teach STEM/STEAM areas. But as time progresses,
the options for the right platforms also evolve makingdifficult to choose amongst them. Some authors opt to first choose a robotic
platform and carry on from there. Others choose first a development environment and then look for which robots can be
programmed from it.
Summary An actual review on learning robotics is here presented, firstly showing some literature background on history and
trends of robotic platforms used in education in general, the different development environments for robotics, and finishing on
competitions and events. A comprehensive characterization list of robotic platforms along with robotic competitions and events is
also shown.
Keywords Distribution .STEM/STEAM .Educational robotics .Robotic platforms .Mobile robotics .Autonomous robotics .
K12
Introduction
Robotics in the past was considered rocket science created by
scientists or high-skilled engineers. Nowadays, that is not the
case anymore. The importance of learning robotics especially
at early ages is visible by the amount of studies found in the
literature. Although robotics started as machines that perform
routine or dangerous tasks previously done by humans, it has
evolved to autonomous and mobile robotics and lately is used
to help improve student’s knowledge and skills in science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Arts
was another area that took the opportunity to embrace robotics
and thus the acronym became STEAM [1].
Kindergarten is the child’s first school, and Evgenia
Roussou successfully introduced computational thinking by
playing with robotics at these children’slevel[2].
At the primary school level, a similar approach was
experimented [3]. The focus was on the teacher’ssideprovid-
ing them with a robotic kit to promote problem-solving and
group work with their pupils. Teachers felt more confident and
aware of teaching computational thinking concepts. Another
study in primary schools was performed to introduce educa-
tional robotics (ER) by using a realistic mathematics approach
[4]. Student’s motivation was higher when compared with
learning mathematics in a traditional way. At the K-12 level,
in order to motivate students enrolling in technology areas,
one school used their Project Area curricular unit to have
groups of students participating in the RoboParty® event
[5]. A standard robotics curriculum for K-16 students was
proposed by Carlotta et al. [6] where a set of guiding
A.Fernando Ribeiro and Gil Lopes contributed equally to this work.
This article is part of theTopical Collection on Robotics in Manufacturing
*A.Fernando Ribeiro
fernando@dei.uminho.pt
Gil Lopes
gil@dei.uminho.pt
1
Department of Industrial Electronics and Algoritmi Research Centre,
University of Minho, Campus de Azurém,
4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal
Current Robotics Reports (2020) 1:1–11
https://doi.org/10.1007/s43154-020-00002-9
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.