I-Corps: Humanoid Co-Robotics Curriculum and Kits for Girls and Boys

Marquette University, Milwaukee WI

Investigators

Abstract

Robotics, according to the Computing Community Consortium (2009), is a $5 billion industry growing by 8% per year. The gap that exists in the participation of underrepresented populations and girls in STEM, including robotics, has been pointed out by policy makers. Data shows that students attending schools in economically underserved districts have less access to robotics. Although there are existing robotics programs for K-12 students, there are no known programs that exist for co-robot programming with a low-cost, affordable humanoid robot and are used in under-resourced schools for STEM teaching. The focus of this proposal is to provide a commercially viable co-robotics curriculum for all girls and boys including underrepresented students and majority students in urban and rural areas along with low-cost robot kits that the students can build and program. The potential beneficiaries of this project include the school administrators, teachers, and students who currently do not have an engaging STEM-based robotics curriculum with low cost humanoid robots. The potential benefits to the nation, generally, and schools, specifically, include the availability of affordable humanoid robots and STEM-based humanoid robotics programming curriculum to assist teachers in encouraging and preparing more students to pursue post-secondary STEM education and careers. The proposed technology builds on the team's expertise in developing 3D printed, social humanoid robots with smartphone-based emotion and conversation interfaces and humanoid robotics curriculum. The current 3D printed humanoid, named MU-L8, has a unique "face" that consists of a smartphone with an app that enables the robot to converse with a human using speech and animated emotions. This team will use customer input to develop a low-cost version of this interactive robot along with a co-robotics programming curriculum that can interactively guide teachers and students in the learning process. The robot will use its verbal and interpersonal capabilities to assist the teacher in delivering robot programming and STEM lessons to the students.