Students build and race robots
A robot system prototype, built by KAUST students during the January 2016 WEP workshop. By David Murphy
Saudi Aramco's Intelligent Systems Lab is located on the KAUST campus, and its members work on developing robotic systems for the energy sector. The lab held a "Design and Build Your Own Robot" workshop for KAUST students January 10 through 14 as part of the University's 2016 Winter Enrichment Program (WEP).
The project-based workshop was aimed at providing the students with hands-on experience in designing, building and programming robotic systems. The students were divided into seven interdisciplinary teams of three to six people, in which they worked on the design, fabrication and testing of their robotic systems.
“We submitted a proposal for the workshop to the WEP 2016 organizers in 2015 and it was accepted, so we began organizing a fully fledged workshop,” said Fadl Abdellatif, one of the workshop's speakers and organizers. Abdellatif, a design engineer in Aramco's Intelligent Systems Lab, is also a KAUST graduate who completed his master's degree in mechanical engineering at the University in 2011.
KAUST students built and programmed their own robots during the five-day workshop. By David Murphy
Creating a fully-functional robot from scratch
“Three parallel areas were covered in constructing the robots," noted Abdellatif. "These include mechanical design, electronics development and embedded programming, all demonstrating the complete design cycle involved in creating a fully functional robot from scratch.”
Seven robots developed during the workshop were then showcased in a competitive race during the annual WEP Science Fair event held on the Discovery Walk on January 19.
“The workshop and the robot-racing competition were very well received by the students, the WEP organizers and the community," Abdellatif said. "The students provided positive feedback about the workshop and they had fun while learning something new. We’re hoping to teach the students about more interesting topics related to robotic systems during next year's WEP in another workshop. We organizers felt our 2016 workshop's success was yet another example of the skill, passion and engineering aptitude of KAUST students."
- By David Murphy, KAUST News