Unipos, an overseas product procurement and consulting service for research and development, receives inquiries for various products to accelerate research and development on a daily basis.
In this article, we will focus on educational kits in the fields of AI education and programming education. myCobot – Artificial Intelligence Kit I will introduce.
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Growing demand for AI human resources and STEM/STEAM education
As various information technologies, including AI technology, advance, there is a demand for human resources who can utilize digital technology in various fields such as operational efficiency improvement in DX, data utilization, and labor saving in factories.And there is no doubt that this trend will continue to grow.
However, looking at the reality, it is difficult to say that securing human resources has kept up with the growing demand for AI human resources.There is a shortage of AI human resources in many organizations, from research institutes to private companies and governments.
Even in Japan, programming education has become a compulsory subject in compulsory education, but not only for elementary to secondary education and higher educational institutions, but also for the information education market for working adults, the market size continues to expand. I'm here.In this way, a lot of attention is focused on “education” as one of the methods to solve the shortage of human resources.
In fact, in school education, we took the initials of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.STEM education, and added Art (art and liberal arts) to thisSTEAM educationThe Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology is also promoting this, and the relevance and importance of STEM/STEAM education are being appealed even for content and events that are not part of school education.
Such education of digital human resources is being promoted not only in Japan but also in various countries, and a wide variety of educational kits for each age and learning level are on sale all over the world.
The Elephant Robotics company introduced this time myCobot – Artificial Intelligence Kit is attracting attention as a product suitable for learning in the AI and robotics fields, which are said to have a particularly close relationship with STEAM education in the future.
reference:
GMO Media x Funai Research Institute ``2022 Programming Education Market Size Survey'' The programming education market in 2022 will be 302 billion yen, and the market for children will continue to grow by 113% year-on-year to 199 billion yen. Possibility of expanding to over 2 billion yen in 2030
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What is myCobot 280 Pi + Artificial Intelligence Kit?
Artificial Intelligence Kit as seen from its function as a teaching material
From the words AI and robotics, various elements such as "recognition of roads and signs in automatic driving", "recognition of people", "recognition of facial expressions", "machine learning", and "control system" may be associated.However, application in the real world is never simple, and tends to become complicated due to various factors such as the surrounding environment, required specifications, and the shape of the object.
On the other hand, when focusing on "learning AI and robotics", one of the important points in the initial stage is to make it easy to understand the outline of the mechanism and technology, and to reduce the issues and actions into a model that is as simple as possible. is a very effective approach to learning.
What's in the Artificial Intelligence Kit
Artificial Intelligence Kit The content of is a structure that emphasizes its simplification.
Specifically, "Camera", "Colored Material Box", "Three Colored Trash Bins", and "Blocks (included with stickers)" are included in the set. The task of moving to a place is realized with simple content.
In terms of software, it supports ROS, Python, C++, etc. as major platforms and languages, and has a wealth of documents such as how to build a development environment.Therefore, it is also effective for learning programming languages.
For those who are new to AI and robotics, and for beginners, coding using a programming language may be a hurdle, but myCobot uses visual programming. myBlockly is also supported.The advantage of visual programming is that actions such as ``moving the arm to point A'' and ``grabbing an object'' can be programmed with intuitive drag-and-drop operations.You can learn programming thinking without memorizing the grammar of general programming languages.
■myBlockly
Visual programming software for programming beginners.Applications with complex functions can be developed simply by dragging and dropping.
Programming thinking is, in other words, thinking about taking things apart and combining them correctly.
For example,"Grab the orange cube and put it in the green box"When performing the action, it is necessary to break down one action into more detailed actions as shown below, assemble the flow of movement, and execute it.
| 1 | Identify coordinate A of the orange cube and coordinate B of the green box with image processing |
| 2 | Move the robot arm to coordinate A |
| 3 | make a grabbing motion |
| 4 | Move the robot arm to coordinate B |
| 5 | let go of an object |
In this way, the way of thinking to decompose and appropriately combine the necessary elements for a specific purpose is not limited to programming, but is an ability that can be applied to all occupations and tasks.From such a point of view, visual programming with lower learning hurdlesTeaching materials for developing the ability to thinkis evaluated as.
reference:
Relationship between programming thinking and programming ability
What is programming thinking?Easy-to-understand explanation using materials from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology!
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Application of Machine Learning in Image Recognition
| 1 | Identify coordinate A of the orange cube and coordinate B of the green box with image processing |
I described it briefly in one line as above, but even this one-line operation requires image processing in order to "recognize the cube in the image", so it cannot be said to be a simple process.
In addition, when solving problems for general applications, a wide range of processing such as human detection and object recognition and discrimination, which is more complicated than "recognizing the color of orange", is required.
The Artificial Intelligence Kit can also cover such image processing and machine learning subjects.
reference:Identify picture blocks (Elephant Robotics) *Jumps to an external site
As described in the reference site, the Artificial Intelligence Kit provides a learning model for image recognition created using OpenCV and tensorflow.Therefore, by introducing a package, you can implement a series of steps up to image recognition.
The above is not the learning of an AI model, but the utilization of a trained model. It is attractive that it is easy.
If you are interested in machine learning, please take a look at the following articles.
Detailed specs of myCobot 280
Use with Artificial Intelligence KitmyCobot Introducing the specifications of the robot arm body.
myCobot is a small, lightweight, modular design 5-axis collaborative robot jointly developed by Elephant Robotics of China and M6Stack.
Although it is lightweight with a body weight of 850g, it has a payload capacity of 250g, an arm length of 350mm, and by attaching various end effectors, it supports applications in various fields such as scientific research, education, smart homes, and light industry.
The main specifications of myCobot 280 main unit are as follows.
The size is moderate, and the Payload is a spec that can lift the minimum amount of objects, making it ideal for tabletop operation.
[mycobot 280 body specifications]
| degree of freedom | 6 |
| Payload | 250g |
| Arm span | 350 mm |
| Working radius | 280 mm |
| Repeatability | ± 0.5mm |
| Weight | 850g |
| Power Input | 8V, 5A |
| Working conditions | -5 ° ～ 45 ° |
| Communication | USB Type-C |
Examples of using the AI education kit
China is one of the countries where STEM/STEAM education is active, such as starting programming education in elementary school in 2017.
The video below is an introduction example of a total of 20 sets of the Artificial Intelligence Kit at a high vocational and technical school in Fujian, China.
The content of the educational program is based on Elephant Robotics'gitbookIt seems that the curriculum is set up based on the contents.
In addition, for products with a concept similar to myCobot introduced this time, Niryo's robot armin XNUMX minutes by bus from Yonago Station.
At the University of Burgundy in France, the company's Niryo One and peripheral kits Conveyor belt and Vision Set were introduced to lectures for learning the control of collaborative robots.
More information can be found in this related article.
Summary
We introduced one example this time, but there are a wide variety of STEM/STEAM education-related products overseas, and we have received many requests for procurement.
Based on our many years of experience, we have abundant know-how in procuring products from overseas, including China.
If there is a product that you are considering procuring, please feel free to contact us.
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