Mobile Robots: A Shared Course Between TU Freiberg and NORDAKADEMIE

According to Statista Market Insights [1] the turnover on robotics has almost doubled between 2016 and 2024. The largest factor is the area of service robotics, which shows the increased usage of robots in many different areas like farming, logistics, or medicine. This is facilitated by different sizes and forms – from small medical robots over robotic lawn mowers up to large industrial robots.

The project CrossLab allowed for an interesting cooperation between different institutes: The course „Fundamentals of mobile robotics“, originally designed for the TU Bergakademie Freiberg by Prof. Dr. Sebastian Zug, was adapted for the NORDAKADEMIE. This was possible due to new communication methods like Zoom so that Prof. Zug could give the course using a hybrid concept. This allowed students to gain insights into a new area and was perceived really well by them.

In the course, students could work in teams to program a small robot called TurtleBot. The students had to teach the robot to autonomously go in a small street without hitting obstacles. In addition, they had to react to a simulated traffic light and only move when the light hit red. Many teams solved the challenge. In addition, students had fun taking on such a project.

[1] Sandra Markovic: Robotics: market data & analysis. Market Insights by statista. August 2024