In the last years, and in order to try to foster the learning, out of classes, of electronics, programming and robotics at ISEP, a group of teachers has been organizing the Robotics@ISEP Open (a short video of a previous edition can be found here: https://youtu.be/Mv-ksndM_yg and the full programme here: https://www.isep.ipp.pt/Page/ViewPage/openrobotica_iii). This event typically takes place during March, and this year’s edition is scheduled to take place during 20 - 22 of March, 2025 (https://www.isep.ipp.pt/Page/ViewPage/openrobotica_iv).
This is an event where students organize themselves in teams (they can be from different academic years and different backgrounds) and register to take part in robotics competitions, and teachers and older students give them training (in case they ask for it), out of classes. In the opinion of the organising team, this approach increases students' motivation to learn robotics compared to "traditional" classroom lessons.
Given the good results achieved so far, in this edition we are welcoming international students to participate. In order to frame their participation in the 2024 edition of the Robotics@ISEP Open, allow the international students to benefit from an ERASMUS+ scholarship to attend and participate, and to give both the national and international participating students an accredited training programme, we are proposing this Blended Intensive Programme (BIP).
The plan is to have online training sessions to introduce students to the fundamentals of industrial robotics / manipulator arms, including simulations and offline programming using simulation software packages, and then have a set of face-to-face sessions at ISEP, to introduce students to the basics of mobile robotics.
The online component, which will take place before the face-to-face component, aims to introduce students to the basic concepts of the course and teach how to work with the appropriate simulation tools for offline simulation and programming of industrial manipulator robots.
The face-to-face component will take place during the week of the Open and will consist of practical training in mobile robotics and the design and construction of a mobile robot for participation in one of the Robot Dragster or TrackBotGP competitions.
This face-to-face training component will be deepened by taking part in the competitions, which will require students to put into practice the knowledge acquired during the training sessions, and to refine their solution for the competition in an essentially autonomous way (but with the support of the lecturers), in order to make it more robust and thus more competitive.
Furthermore, there will also be a significant component of student autonomous work since students need to design and develop their simulated cell (including the robot program) for the Industrial Robotic Manipulators competition.