Restructuring the Robotics Laboratory and Enhancing the Robotics Curriculum at RIT

The Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering Technology department at the Rochester Institute of Technology has been involved in an ongoing effort to improve its junior/senior/graduate level Robotics in Manufacturing laboratory and curriculum. The previous laboratory provided interesting challenges for the students to be able to get into the laboratory space and effectively use the equipment. The new laboratory exercises incorporate research of selected robotics topics, new laboratory equipment, part/process design, and process improvement. The curriculum restructuring involves the integration of previous laboratory exercises with new exercises on existing equipment and the new equipment using manufacturing philosophies such as lean, agile, and 5S. The paper will describe the new laboratory curriculum and how the manufacturing systems techniques were utilized to realize significant beneficial restructuring. Background and Motivation A robotics course as a technical elective and a required course provide upper-level engineering technology students with an interesting class experience within their desired curriculum at Rochester Institute of Technology. Allowing students to gain applied knowledge of some of the current robotics equipment is in the interest of the university and it students. Previous students have worked diligently on maintaining the robotic equipment. However, the students did not have a focus of cleaning the work space or developing a static work area for future students. In the summer of 2009, it was determined by one of the co-authors of this effort that a clearly defined plan had to be initiated to improve the overall condition of the robotics laboratory. In the summer students are not using the laboratory for coursework so there was an opportunity. Part of the continuous improvement process included actually upgrading the laboratory space, equipment, and curriculum (in the form of updating the experiments the students would be performing). In essence, the physical laboratory and the Robotics in Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) course curriculum required restructuring to enhance the student learning experience. The course consists of one class section and one laboratory section. The focus of this effort was to restructure the laboratory section and improve the laboratory area and equipment which had not been previously improved [1].