A realistic simulation environment as a teaching aid in educational robotics

  • José Lima Instituto Politécnico de Bragança / Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science
  • Rebeca B. Kalbermatter Instituto Politécnico de Bragança
  • João Braun Instituto Politécnico de Bragança / Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science / Universidade do Porto
  • Thadeu Brito Instituto Politécnico de Bragança / Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science / Universidade do Porto
  • Guido Berger Instituto Politécnico de Bragança / Universidade do Porto / Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro
  • Paulo Costa Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science / Universidade do Porto

Abstract


The experimental component is an essential method in Engineering education. Sometimes the availability of laboratories and components is compromised, and the COVID-19 pandemic worsened the situation. Resorting to an accurate simulation seems to help this process by allowing students to develop the work, program, test, and validate it. Moreover, it lowers the development time and cost of the prototyping stages of a robotics project. As a multidisciplinary area, robotics requires simulation environments with essential characteristics, such as dynamics, connection to hardware (embedded systems), and other applications. Thus, this paper presents the Simulation environment of SimTwo, emphasizing previous publications with models of sensors, actuators, and simulation scenes. The simulator can be used for free, and the source code is available to the community. Proposed scenes and examples can inspire the development of other simulation scenes to be used in electrical and mechanical Engineering projects.
Keywords: Mechanical sensors, Embedded systems, Pandemics, Source coding, Laboratories, Sensor phenomena and characterization, Robot sensing systems, Robotics Simulation, Dynamics Simulation, SimTwo, Engineering Education, Education 4.0, STEM
Published
2022-10-18
How to Cite

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LIMA, José; KALBERMATTER, Rebeca B.; BRAUN, João; BRITO, Thadeu; BERGER, Guido; COSTA, Paulo. A realistic simulation environment as a teaching aid in educational robotics. In: BRAZILIAN SYMPOSIUM ON ROBOTICS AND LATIN AMERICAN ROBOTICS SYMPOSIUM (SBR/LARS), 19. , 2022, São Bernardo do Campo/SP. Anais [...]. Porto Alegre: Sociedade Brasileira de Computação, 2022 . p. 430-435.