EDUROVs: a low cost and sustainable remotely operated vehicles educational program

Abstract

EDUROV is an educational underwater robot proposal from the researchers of the Oceanic Platform of Canary Islands (PLOCAN) and the Computer Vision and Robotics research group of the University of Girona (VICOROB), launched in January 2012 with the support of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECyT). This program has evolved in the last decade in order to make it more sustainable, allowing the teleoperation of underwater vehicles from anywhere in the world. EDUROVs have passed through several phases, beginning with a basic electronics robot, followed by the incorporation of open-source electronic prototyping platforms and finally reaching the current state of teleoperation. Results based on 1–5 Likert scale questions show that both students and teachers consider the program useful to introduce technical and scientific concepts. It is concluded that the use of low-cost materials and tools that are easy to obtain, following education on sustainability approaches, also makes them possible for use in high schools, and science teachers can easily carry out the activity. Moreover, the possibility of remote teleoperation of underwater vehicles, together with the collaboration among groups of students in different locations that are in contact through these online tools, allows one to motivate students to work on the project from a different perspective.