Efficient delivery of Robotics Programming educational content using Cloud Robotics

TL;DR

This paper presents a cloud-robotics platform using Kubernetes and real robots to enhance robotics education by reducing setup time, enabling seamless simulation-to-real transition, and sharing resources efficiently.

Contribution

It introduces a cloud-based environment for robotics education that simplifies setup, integrates simulation with real robots, and optimizes resource sharing, which is novel in educational contexts.

Findings

Reduced setup times for students

Seamless transition from simulation to real robots

Efficient GPU resource sharing among student groups

Abstract

In this paper, we report on our use of cloud-robotics solutions to teach a Robotics Applications Programming course at Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW). The usage of Kubernetes based cloud computing environment combined with real robots -- turtlebots and Niryo arms -- allowed us to: 1) minimize the set up times required to provide a Robotic Operating System (ROS) simulation and development environment to all students independently of their laptop architecture and OS; 2) provide a seamless "simulation to real" experience preserving the exciting experience of writing software interacting with the physical world; and 3) sharing GPUs across multiple student groups, thus using resources efficiently. We describe our requirements, solution design, experience working with the solution in the educational context and areas where it can be further improved. This may be of interest to other educators who may want to replicate our experience.