Integrating Theory and Practice in Undergraduate Education through the Design and Implementation of Pin-Based Multi-Robot Manipulators

Undergraduate students within STEM fields are typically exposed to concepts within their major from a largely theoretical perspective – emphasizing procedure, equations, and the development of fundamental skillsets. When included, course projects attempt to emulate a more realistic workforce experience, in which students must synthesize and apply prior knowledge across subject matters, leading to improvements in mastery. While these projects provide value to the educational experience, they remain constrained by the bounds of a classroom environment. These limitations are less pronounced in internships and research experiences for undergraduates (REU). Through the presentation of the REU project discussed herein, this paper demonstrates how an interdisciplinary REU project in a field such as robotics can help students integrate theory and practice. Furthermore, REU can also lead to the discovery of new techniques or approaches within a field of interest to the scientific community. In this paper, undergraduate students address object manipulation by a multi-robot system with non-traditional manipulators. We draw inspiration from the simple yet highly configurable pin-art toys to design, develop, and implement a novel solution. The prototype offers the potential to afford multi-robot systems with a flexible, modular, and low-cost actuation system that would be better suited to collaborative applications.