The Integration of Robotic Sailboats into the Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate (CDIO) Initiative for Robotics Education

Abstract

The CDIO^TM Initiative is an innovative educational framework providing students with an education stressing engineering fundamentals set in the context of Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate (CDIO) real-world systems and products. The focus of the CDIO Initiative is to produce industry-ready graduates through practice and it has become increasingly popular, especially in engineering education. The CDIO Initiative has used various platforms such as wind turbines and eco-cars for developing the corresponding curriculum of engineering education. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of robotics education, existing platforms that mostly focus on mechanical design are not sufficient to cover all the aspects of robotic technologies such as sensors, navigation, control and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Acting as a versatile robotic platform, robotic sailboats are introduced into the CDIO Initiative for the first time through the corresponding curriculum development and classroom practice for robotics education. Initial results of such an approach have demonstrated the suitability as well as the benefits of using robotic sailboats for the CDIO Initiative of robotics education.