CUHK Professor Develops "Flip Online Lab" Under the Pandemic to Remotely Control Robotic Arms for Experiments at Home

After three years of the epidemic, the online teaching model has gradually become more popular, which has also promoted educational innovation.

Professor Han Dongkun and his team from the Department of Mechanization and Automatic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong faced the suspension of face-to-face teaching at the school during the early stage of the outbreak. During this period, they developed the "flip online laboratory". The team designed and assembled 12 robotic arms from scratch , so that students can do experiments in real time even at home, and remotely control the robotic arm.

Han Dongkun described the rare experience: "Online experimental courses can effectively train students. If you don't know engineering and don't know how to do it, you will definitely not be able to do it."

"Online Lab" is popular with students

Professor Han Dongkun said that during the epidemic in 2020, considering that students would not be able to attend classes on campus, the "Flip Online Lab" was developed.

He explained that the idea is to allow students to watch short experimental videos in advance to prepare lessons through the "Flipped Lab" guide, and to operate the robotic arm to draw simple patterns in real time through the "Online Lab".

He described the course as an overwhelming response, "A lot of students liked it very much, and thought it was much more fun than the theory class."

Han Dongkun pointed out that in the process of research and development, it must go through repeated tests and experiments before it can be formally applied in the course teaching and used by students. "The system really started from scratch. We have experienced many OTs, so we dare to let students use it first."

Remotely adjust the robotic arm in real time

The special feature of "Flip Online Lab" is that the robotic arm controlled by the students is not fictional, but with the help of cross-platform remote control technology, students can use their personal computers to control the computers in the laboratory at home and adjust the robotic arm in real time and control.

Professor Han also pointed out, "Online experimental courses can effectively train students' abilities. If students who study engineering don't know how to do things with their own hands, they will definitely not be able to do so."

The special feature of "Flip Online Lab" is that the robotic arm controlled by the students is not fictional, but uses cross-platform remote control technology to operate the robotic arm to draw simple patterns in real time.

(Photo by Deng Kangqiao)

It is hoped that it will be applied in overseas academic exchanges in the future

Even though the epidemic is gradually easing and the school resumes face-to-face classes, Professor Han Dongkun hopes to apply the "Flip Online Lab" to overseas academic exchanges in the future.

He said that he has cooperated with a school in the UK to connect overseas through the "flip online laboratory", so that students from the two schools can remotely exchange and control the robotic arms of the other's laboratory, promoting academic and cultural exchanges between the two places.

In addition, Prof. Han launched a professional version of the "Flip Online Lab", which includes the functions of automatically evaluating students' performance and automatically cleaning the drawing board.

Technician Martin also mentioned that there are still many problems to be solved in the early stage of the development of the robotic arm.

(Photo by Deng Kangqiao)

Technician: The research and development of new technology can effectively reduce the workload

Technician Martin also mentioned that there are still many problems to be solved in the early stage of the development of the robotic arm. Due to the limited number of robotic arms, only 30 students can attend classes at the same time in each class. Only a robotic arm draws simple patterns on the drawing board.

Martin said that in the first nearly a year, since the function of automatic cleaning of the drawing board had not been developed at that time, it was necessary to rely on manual cleaning every time. If there is any mess, we have to wipe it away with a cloth brush.” He believes that the research and development of new technologies can effectively reduce the workload.

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