The CAR Approach: Creative Applied Research Experiences for Master’s Students in Autonomous Platooning

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are crucial robotic systems that promise to improve our lives via safe, efficient, and inclusive transport–while posing some new challenges for the education of future researchers in the area, that our current research and education might not be ready to deal with: In particular, we don’t know what the AVs of the future will look like, practical learning is restricted due to cost and safety concerns, and a high degree of multidisciplinary knowledge is required. Here, following the broad outline of Active Student Participation theory, we propose a pedagogical approach targeted toward AVs called CAR that combines Creativity theory, Applied demo-oriented learning, and Real world research context. Furthermore, we report on applying the approach to stimulate learning and engagement in a master’s course, in which students freely created a demo with 10 small robots running ROS2 and Ubuntu on Raspberry Pis, in connection to an ongoing research project and a real current problem (SafeSmart and COVID-19). The results suggested the feasibility of the CAR approach for enabling learning, as well as mutual benefits for both the students and researchers involved, and indicated some possibilities for future improvement, toward more effective integration of research experiences into second cycle courses.