Small Robots, Big Results

When it comes to engineering education, small colleges and world-renowned universities have more in common that you might think.  They all want to have versatile, effective teaching labs that offer students engaging learning experiences and the opportunity to do advanced research. 

A first-rate engineering lab would leave them well positioned to attract the best students for their programs. Such a lab would also help motivate students to get the most out of their curriculum, explore new areas of interest, and graduate with industry-ready skills.

Centennial College in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is a community college with a well-regarded Engineering Technology program. Recently it turned to Quanser to help them teach haptics and robotics to their students. To do so, Centennial selected Quanser’s Omni Bundle Lab Solution, which consists of three components: the Phantom® Omni robot, QUARC® control design software and associated curriculum; along with the DENSO open architecture robot. 

In the video below, the Omni robot is connected to the DENSO robot with a force sensor that yields haptic feedback. the smaller Omni controls the larger DENSO, and interacts with it on both virtual and real objects.

As Centennial College’s lab demonstrates, the Omni and the Denso are a formidable combination for engineering teaching and research.  There are several reasons why.

The small Omni Bundle is an effective, inexpensive way to teach haptics and robotics to undergraduate and graduate students. Quanser recently increased its capabilities, updated its course materials and made it even easier to use; it’s more ”plug and play”, which busy students and researchers appreciate.

These new capabilities reflect the latest updates in Quanser’s QUARC 2.2 rapid control design software. The updated Omni Bundle’s curriculum also reflects the recent QUARC updates. Curriculum topics include experiments in robot kinematics, trajectory planning, joint level control, workspace level control, haptics and more.  Request your sample curriculum now.  

The compact DENSO robot offers great industry-level precision, flexibility and speed.  As one of the world’s most commonly-used industrial robot arms, it combines high speed and repeatability with powerful load-handling capability.

When the Omni and DENSO are linked, the result is a high-end tele-operation platform that lends itself to all levels of teaching and research. Ultimately, this dynamic haptic and robotic lab combination helps achieve two desired outcomes: students gain significant real-world robotic control experience, and engineering schools graduate new engineers with skills they can use immediately in the workplace. 

With tools like these, it’s clear that any engineering school can achieve advanced results no matter what its size.  Request a demo of the Omni Bundle at info@quanser.com.