2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Collaborative robots (cobots) are becoming increasingly popular in industrial robotics, particularly in applications benefiting from human-robot collaboration in manufacturing and logistics. Compared to their traditional industrial robot counterparts, cobots often present many advantages regarding integrated safety, ease of programming, and time to application deployment. There is an urgent need for the next generation of applied engineering technology students and educators to understand how working with cobots in common manufacturing-related tasks compares with using traditional industrial robots in similar tasks. Illinois State University has installated five cobots to be used concurrently with five six-axis articulated industrial robots in an undergraduate-level, applications-focused robotics systems integration course. In addition to supporting applied engineering technology students, this lab will support faculty and student research in cobot-related “smart manufacturing” that includes skills such as machine vision, additive manufacturing, and advanced simulation and programming techniques such as using mixed reality.

This paper will highlight the motivation and rationale behind the curriculum and laboratory changes, the plan for current and future work, and preliminary observations as developments are underway. This is the first paper in a series that will continue to document the development of a multi-year project.