Increasing Student Engagement in STEM with Open-Source Robotics

STEM Education: How a PS4 Joystick Controlled Robotic Arm was Designed to Help Dallas ISD Increase Student Engagement for Robotics.

One of the biggest challenges in STEM education is making robotics accessible to all students, especially those with no prior programming experience. Traditional robotics programs often require coding knowledge, which can be intimidating.  Coding is time-consuming and limits hands-on interaction, especially when your STEM program is in a mobile lab and you have limited time at each Dallas ISD campus.

To bridge this gap with a solution, Open-Source Solutions introduced an innovative approach.  Using the open-source ROS/ROS2 compatible Lite 6x, our team developed an application using a PS4 joystick, allowing students to control a robotic arm in real time without prior coding knowledge.  Using the PS4 control application provided an immediate and interactive way for students to experience robotics in a natural and intuitive way, making engagement more inviting and enjoyable.

Breaking Down Barriers to Robotics

In many educational settings, students are introduced to robotics through coding exercises before they can interact with the hardware. While coding is a valuable skill, it can also be a hurdle. Some students struggle with syntax, logic, or the abstract nature of programming before ever seeing the robot move.

By integrating a PS4 controller, students could instantly manipulate the robotic arm, bypassing the need for complex programming. This simple change led to several key improvements in student engagement:

• Immediate Interaction: Students could see the robot respond to their inputs in real-time, creating an instant connection between action and reaction.

• Lower Learning Curve: Students could start controlling the robot within minutes instead of spending hours learning programming basics.

• Increased Confidence: Students who might have felt intimidated by coding gained confidence by successfully operating the robot through intuitive controls.

• Exploratory Learning: With fewer technical barriers, students experimented more freely, testing different movements and functions without the fear of "breaking" the code.

  
  

Looking Ahead

We’re thrilled to have had the opportunity to work with Dallas ISD on this unique, open-source robotics project.

Hopefully, by making robotics more accessible and interactive for Dallas ISD’s mobile STEM lab, this project will spark curiosity and encourage the next generation of robotics and automation professionals.

Would you like to see this type of robotics set up in your classroom or STEM program?

Let’s start a conversation! info@open-sourcesolutions.com

About Us

Open-Source is democratizing technology, lowering acquisition costs, making robotics more and accessible. We focus on delivering educators cost-effective, industrial-level robotics and automation lab solutions built on open-source technology to help prepare our future workforce.