Teaching Industrial Robotics in Higher Education with the Visual-based Android Application Hammer

Abstract

Robotics is a demanding subject in higher education. Learning methodologies need to be updated to make use of the new technologies. This paper presents a new methodology for teaching industrial robotics programming using a visual interface running on Android devices, called Hammer. This tool allows the control and programming of robots via a visual environment based on the Scratch concept. Thanks to it, students can see the practical part of theoretical concepts learned in class and, at the same time, test and generate tasks and paths for industrial robots while learning the basics of robot programming. Students are not supposed to have any knowledge about the target robot programming language, but a basic knowledge of Robotics. This tool has been tested in this paper through four different guided practical exercises. All exercises have been validated through surveys and the results are presented and discussed in the paper.