A PROPOSAL TO IMPROVE PRACTICAL SKILLS LEARNING IN MOBILE ROBOTICS THROUGH LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT

Industry 4.0 requires universities to orient engineering study programmes towards those key technologies and skills that underpin this new industrial revolution, in which autonomous robots are one of the main drivers. In this sense, this paper presents a proposal to enhance the learning of mobile robotics concepts oriented to future mechanical and electronics engineers by introducing the education LEGO Mindstorms NXT platform. More concretely, our team bets on using the platform in the lab assignment of the elective matter "Programming Mobile Robots" taught during the eighth semester in Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Electronics and Automation Engineering degrees. After an introductory workshop to present the main features of the LEGO education kit, including its sensors and actuators, the laboratory work falls on the students, grouped in teams. The sessions are divided into two main practices. The first one deals with graphical programming using the LEGO NXTG software, and the second one focuses on the remote control of a robot by means of Bluetooth communication using the RWTH - Mindstorms NXT Toolbox for MATLAB. This way, focused on teamwork-based and project-based learning, a series of incremental difficulty exercises are proposed, as well as free-design exercises in which both the mechanical design and the programming solution are evaluated. The experience shows that through collaborative work, the students put into practice the theoretical principles taught in classroom. In addition, the interaction between the students of both degrees makes it possible to improve the skills that tend to be less frequent in undergraduates of both branches (structural design in electronics vs programming skills in mechanics).