RobotCraft Summer Course Ingeniarius Education

RobotCraft is a two months intensive internship and summer-course program. After the tremendous success of past editions, RobotCraft's 8th edition is coming in the summer of 2023.

Attendance

Intern’s attendance is assessed using the unique RFID cards used as individual identification. To obtain the certificate, the intern must comply with the following attendance:

• Lessons (theoretical classes, seminars, workshops, etc.): 60 out of 84 hours
• Laboratory: 24 out of 36 hours (4 out of 6-week laboratories)*

* Attendance outside predefined laboratory days does not make up for missing laboratories.

Costs of living

There will be the typical costs of living, such as room, food, etc., naturally. I would say that, for the whole 2 month programme, already including the registration costs in RobotCraft, each student should be willing to spend about 1370€.

ECTS

As a rule of thumb, RobotCraft does not contribute with ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) to your ongoing academical course, unless your University contacts us in this respect. In this case, an agreement may be reached to offer a given number of ECTS as part of your academic training.

Basis of mobile robotics

Acquire 3D modelling, 3D printing and electromechanical concepts, applied to the design of mobile robots.

Robotics programming

Explore the Arduino platform and the ROS framework for the low-level and high-level control of mobile robots.

Build your own robot

Consolidate all concepts taught towards the design of a mobile robotic platform and compete with your friends!

Programme

Craft #1 (C1): Introduction to Robotics (4,5h T)

• Presentation of lecturers, mentors and interns (T);
• Presentation of RobotCraft 2022 and the different crafts it comprises (T);
• Introduction to robotics, describing the history of robotics and its evolution (T);
• Presenting mobile robot morphologies, namely sensors and actuators (T);
• Brief literature review related to robotics, presenting the necessary basic theoretical concepts (T);

Craft #2 (C2): Introduction to Programming (16,5h T)

• Introduction to C/C++ programming (T);

Craft #3 (C3): Mecatronics (6h T | 6h L | 6h H)

• Introduction to electromechanics in mobile robotics (T);
• Electromechanical assembly of the mobile robotic platform (L).

Craft #4 (C4): Mobile Robotics Programming (12h T | 12h L | 12h H)

• Introduction to C language applied to Arduino programming (T);
• Describe the features of Arduino solutions and ATMEL microcontroller (e.g., hardware architecture, cycles, pin configuration, communications), using the Arduino Mega board (T);
• Identify the different wireless communication technologies used in robotics (e.g., RF, Bluetooth, AdHoc, ZigBee) (T);
• Introduction to low-level algorithms, flowcharts and pseudocode (T);
• Acquire skills in the sensor and actuator practice used in robotics (T | L);
• Develop a typical differential kinematic application using Arduino Mega (L | H).

Craft #5 (C5): Introduction to Linux (12h T)

• Introduction to Linux OS (T);

Craft #6 (C6): Robot Operating System (24h T | 12h L | 12h H)

• Introduction to ROS (T);
• Describe ROS features (e.g., stacks, publish-subscribe, topics, rosserial), and provide specific examples and case studies (T);
• Present ROS-compatible simulators, such as Morse, Stage and Gazebo (T);
• Introduction to high-level algorithms, flowcharts and pseudocode (T);
• Follow ROS tutorial under simulation environment (T | L);
• Explore rosserial for Arduino – ROS communication (T | L);
• Develop a typical remote sensing application using both Arduino and ROS (L | H).

Craft #7 (C7): Artificial Intelligence (6h T | 6h L | 6h H)

• Introduction to Artificial Intelligence, presenting different paradigms and some real applications (T);
• Introduction and importance of integrating biologically-inspired models in robotics (T);
• Formalizing a mobile robotic approach, devising biologically-inspired algorithms and finite-state machines (T | L);
• Develop a streaming architecture to exchange all necessary data between Arduino Mega and Raspberry Pi 3 (e.g., sensor readings, encoders readings, actuators control, etc.) (L | H);

Craft #8 (C8): Competition (6h T | 27h O)

• Discussion of the competitive events, rules and prizes (T);
• Consolidate concepts learned over all crafts and test the mobile robotic platform under a specific scenario (O).