Trainable Motor for Storytelling: in response to the challenge of introducing robotics to a classroom, especially with limited access to computers and WiFi.
Smart Motors are low-cost robotics tools developed at CEEO. The impetus for the development of Smart Motors comes from our belief that all children should have access to learning about engineering and robotics. One of the barriers we have found is the high cost of the kits and the need for expensive peripherals like computers and the Internet. In order to make it more accessible, we set out to build robust, low-cost standalone solutions that teachers can use in their classrooms that enable students to playfully learn about engineering and robotics.
See SmartMotors in action in a classroom in the Navajo Nation.
See SmartMotors in action in a classroom in the Navajo Nation.
With Smart Motor we shift the focus from coding robots to training them, which we hope is much more intuitive for beginners and will consequently lower the barriers of entry to robotics for young children. Because of its lower cost and ease of use, we believe teachers will find it encouraging to integrate this tool in activities like Novel Engineering and other design challenges and help bring engineering and robotics into their classrooms. Smart Motor can also help teachers introduce topics like machine learning, AI and important topics like ethics surrounding the use of AI.
Depending on the availability of computers and WiFi, Smart Motor can provide different opportunities for exploration for different levels of users. Beginners can simply use the pre-existing code to train their models, and advanced users with access to computers can observe, edit, and input the training data, while further advanced users can either implement their own algorithm or use different sensors or combination of sensors to fundamentally change the way these motors work.
The v0.1 kit, sent to participants of the May 14th Hackathon
We also envision Augmented Reality to play a vital role in helping the users make sense of how these motors behave. Using the AR to visualize the training data, users can understand what the sensor is measuring and why the motor is behaving in a certain way. A further advanced use of AR could be to edit and clean the training data to make the models robust.
We have just begun to explore this amazing idea. And we welcome you to join us in this exploration.
Introductory Activities for Teaching Robotics with SmartMotors
International Collaboration to Increase Access to Educational Robotics for Students
Dahal, M., Kresin, L., & Rogers, C. (2023, April). Introductory Activities for Teaching Robotics with SmartMotors. In International Conference on Robotics in Education (RiE) (pp. 229-241). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland.
Dahal, M., Kresin, L., Peres, A., Pereira, E. B., & Rogers, C. (2023, October). International Collaboration to Increase Access to Educational Robotics for Students. In 2023 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE) (pp. 1-5). IEEE.