2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The University of Michigan Robotics program focuses on robotics as an embodied intelligence, where robots must sense, reason, act, and work with people to improve quality of life and productivity equitably across society. ROB 204 is an introductory course for robotics majors that provides a foundation for designing robotic systems to address a user need with a sociotechnical context. The course combines lectures, labs, and discussions to teach and reinforce learning objectives in an equitable and experiential manner. In this paper, we present the lab procedures, required materials, and reflections that operationalize concepts from lecture. Labs collectively include hardware, software, and stakeholder interactions to create emergent experiences for students that are only obtainable through active learning. Through the semester, students have lab themes around: (1) user interface control input design, (2) non-verbal human-robot communication, (3) human mental models and their interactions with robot hierarchical control levels, (4) stakeholder interviews and problem statement generation, and (5) concept design and usability testing. The hardware used within these labs spans paper prototypes, individual control elements (e.g., switches, potentiometers, encoders), customizable controllers for servomotor-based actions, and commercially-available robotic systems (e.g., Amazon Astro). The labs culminate in a holistic design process, centered on preparing students for community interactions. In our initial offerings of the course, we have brought in practicing nurses from hospitals to share real-world challenges and needs. Through these themes, system levels, and stakeholder interactions, students gain a foundational understanding of a socially-engaged design process in which they conduct quantitative and qualitative analyses to inform robot designs and evaluate their impact on society.