Cloud technologies being used in STEM education for providing robotics studying are highlighted in this article. Developing cloud robotic systems have not been used to their fullest degree in education but are applied by limited specialists' number. Advantages given by cloud robotics (an access to big data, open systems, open environments development) lead to work with mentioned systems interfaces improving and having them more accessible. The potential represented by these technologies make them worth being shown to the majority of teachers. Benefits of cloud technologies for robotics and automatization systems are defined. An integrated approach to knowledge assimilation is STEM education basis. The demanded stages for robotics system development are shown and cloud sources which could be possibly used are analyzed in this article.
Cloud Computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network
access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers,
storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with
minimal management effort or service provider interaction [
The non-paying attention to disadvantages, with distrust to suppliers of cloud
services being main, allows cloud technologies increase their popularity. Web-sites,
emails, connection/communication sites and mobile services are among the most
popular ones (see Fig. 1).
education for everyone who have to study, who have a wish and a need for long-life
learning and for those who have an opportunity to study” [
The traditional learning environment has been complemented by a digital one – the
scope of information and communication technologies (ICT), including the Internet,
mobile and related technologies and devices, as well as digital networks, databases,
content and services [
There are following changes [
The cloud environment serves as an integrative and system-forming function in the
educational environment of an educational institution [
Due to cloud technologies development, innovative models of student’s learning have acquired the new content and forms. New features are [7; 33]: ─ Conducting experiments in virtual laboratories. ─ Study of online courses at a race, according to the possibilities. ─ Web conferencing ─ Digital technology use to organize the learning process in the classroom and outside it.
Peculiarities of the organization of learning by means of cloud technologies are reflected in the forming process of a personal learning environment, in strengthening of their role in learning, in the emergence of new roles of teacher, such as: master in the studio, learning administrator, tutor [11; 15; 32; 35]. Therefore, the training of future teachers should take into account the changes in the technological world.
The issue of the quality of future teachers training with the use of cloud technologies
has reached a new level; the motivation determines the content and nature of activities.
Meaningful choice of activities, advanced settings, adaptive system of tasks, the
possibility of real feedback and creating an atmosphere of cooperation allows
developing of the comfortable learning environment [2; 14; 25; 26; 36]. The
organizational factors are [
The analyze of reporting (NMC Horizon Report) over the past seven years was carried
out by educational association Educause [
Cloud technologies are highly likely to effect on learning tools, methods and forms
changing and to cause education modernization. There are some technological
developments taking contemporary educational process over [
The requirements of modern society to the level of digital media mastering,
understanding of the principles of their functioning have grown significantly. It requires
specialists with good natural-mathematical training. However, only about 10% of
students in Ukrainian schools choose this profile as their specialization. Therefore, one
of the goals of the education system is to increase students’ interest in the study of
mathematics, physics, programming and other disciplines. One of the ways to achieve
this goal is to develop STEM education (STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering
and Mathematics) [
The current stage of robotics implementation in education is reflected in scientific publications of Ukrainian scientists such as Nataliia V. Morze, Oksana V. Strutynska, Mariia A. Umryk, Olena S. Kuzminska, Mariia A. Gladun, Serhii M. Dziuba and others [20; 21; 22; 31]. The number of publications in robotics from 2012 to 2019 is indicated in the Table 1 (data taken from scientific journals in Google Scholar and in Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine). By 2016, robotics was exclusively a discipline of nonformal education for schoolchildren and professional education of future engineers. In 2016, in Ukraine, robotics became part of education, which led to its popularization. Most publications are devoted to robotics use for teaching students, including future teachers, in the context of STEM-education. Another part is devoted to the use of robotics in lessons at school. But among them there is no topic about cloud technology used to learn robotics. The idea of STEM technological component is widespread use of digital technologies, including cloud technology. We overviewed the cloud resources for robotics learning. The purpose of the article is to analyze modern cloud technologies of STEM learning for robotic systems designing. 3
It should be noted the term “cloud technology” in scientific publications refers to cloud
services. Robotics is not limited onboard resources for computing, storage, or software
thanks to technology advances. It has the added capabilities owing to cloud-based
technologies; they enable the development of automation systems and robots that
exchange data and perform calculations using neural networks or artificial intelligence
[29; 34; 35]. Cloud robotics relies on network data to support its work. It has integrated
storage into a single, standalone system [
Robotics has a number of potential benefits of the cloud [
Year 2012 2013 2016 2017 2018 2019 Total: 1 1 5 4 2 4 17 2 1 4 3 10 1 1 7 5 6 7 27 ─ Big Data: access to libraries of images, maps, trajectories, and descriptive data, ─ Cloud Computing: access to parallel grid computing on demand for statistical analysis, learning, and motion planning, ─ Collective Robot Learning: robots sharing trajectories, control policies, and outcomes, ─ Human Computation: use of crowdsourcing to tap human skills for analyzing images and video, classification, learning, and error recovery.
However, the main problem of the practices introducing is teacher training. The large inertia of the education system does not allow the rapid change of the training technologies. These technologies should be tested in the educational process. A sufficient number of supporters, teachers-innovators, who will use it and share their experience, should also be formed. To accelerate the stage of introducing robotics into educational activity, there is a need to train future teachers in natural-mathematical disciplines in the use of robotic systems. So, we see the first stage of robotics, when we use SaaS for “desktop” robotics. In the next stage, cloud robotics will be used for learning.
As robotic projects require not only a technical base, but also specialized knowledge of physics, programming, and digital literacy, the use of the following free SaaS cloud resources and platforms will help to organize the work or approach to the project. ─ Cloud information resources Try Engineering (http://www.tryengineering.org) – the platform contains examples of engineering professions and information about engineering in general, for teachers there are examples of lesson plans. Diy (http://arduino-diy.com) – portal for students, who are fond of electronics and robotic projects. Hundreds of projects for the Arduino platform have been introduced. There are tutorials with step-by-step explanations and examples. Arduino.ua (https://doc.arduino.ua) – this resource contains all the necessary information for the beginner in robotics: electronic boards, connections, components etc. ─ On-line programming resources Made with code (https://www.madewithcode.com/projects/) – a free resource from Google for programming studying. It has examples of educational software for children from the age of five. The resource is aimed at engaging girls in programming. Visual editor develops Blockly programs. It has step-by-step instructions and guide users. For children from 8 years old. Scratch (https://scratch.mit.edu) – licensed by the GNU GPL. This programming environment is free to download and free to use in school or after-school education. Multilingual visual editor designs Blockly programs. It has step-bystep instructions for beginner users. For children from 8 years old. Scratch for Arduino (S4A) – is a modification of Scratch that allows simple programming of an open source Arduino platform. Visual editor develops Blockly programs. For children from 10 years old. mBlock (https://www.mblock.cc) – this platform is also a modification of Scratch and supports programming of robotic systems based on Arduino microcontroller such as: ArduinoUno, Codey Rocky, mBot, Neuron, MotionBlock, micro:bit. Visual editor designs Blockly programs, and usual programs with commands. For children from 8 years old. ─ Virtual labs Tinkercad (https://www.tinkercad.com) – design models that will be printed on a 3D printer (Fig. 3) and modeling for connection Arduino sensor circuitry on a breadboard (Fig. 4). It allows making device connection layouts, write applications, and test them online. Visual editor designs Blockly programs, and usual programs with commands. For children from 8 years old. Circuito (https://www.circuito.io/) – online layout of electronic circuits and creation of electronic boards. It has step-by-step instructions and guide for users.
Visual editor designs programs with commands. For children from 12 years old. Easyeda (https://easyeda.com/) or CircuitLab (https://www.circuitlab.com) has an online resource for creating electronic circuits (Fig. 5). It has step-by-step instructions and guide for users. For children from 12 years old. ─ Professional communities – the purpose of such communities is to activate teachers and organize subject communities, join them for collaboration, and engage students in the learning process. Particularly, the most interested in information technology and robotics are the Ukrainian communities on Facebook “STEM-school”, “Digital Educator Group”, “IT scholar”, “Robotics and 3D modeling”, “Robotics of Kherson region”, “STEM step for everyone”, “Mobile Robotics Laboratory” etc. Robotics is one of the areas of STEM education, which combines design and research activities. Such activities are different from laboratory ones by the lack of instructions on the sequence of actions, measurements, data processing, drawing conclusions. The educational projects are students drawing up an action plan, choosing a method of decision and processing of the results.
Educational scientific projects are necessary component of curricula in Physics, Informatics, Biology and Chemistry. The projects can be developed by using robotics.
Robotic project development requires the following steps: 1. Formulation and research of the problem and search for a technical solution – at this stage, theoretical and experimental modeling of reality and the search for a technical solution are performed. Organizing this stage requires robotics information resources contained the examples of projects or technological solutions 2. Robotic system development is a stage of carrying out research of a technical solution, its design, developing and approbation. At this stage, the structure, mechanical and electrical units are assembled. a. Modeling – at this stage, the choice of materials for the design, justification of the reliability of the selected scheme of connection of parts, an instructional scheme of assembly of the structure development are made. At this stage, the question of the functionality, ergonomics and interface of the future design is resolved. It affects such aspects of the technical solution as convenience, safety and simplicity of use. An integral part of this stage is interface design. For this purpose, for example, on-line platforms of 3D models development are involved. b. Design, prototype making – mechanics, electronics. At this stage, the collection of functional units, the assembly of the structure is conducted. It is important to test the design and make changes to the design. At this stage, it is functioning important to make an electronic circuit for the interaction of all robot devices and its sensors. The presence of cloud platforms allows creating a team project and schemes for working together. It also solves the problem of continuity if a project moves from one research group of students to another. c. Programming is the developer environment. It is a stage of functioning algorithms development, writing/adjustment of the program, testing of the 3. Results sharing – the stage of presenting the work, drawing up documentation, evaluating own results.
The cloud resources use in the educational process makes possible to develop the complete educational and methodological support of the discipline “Educational Robotics”. The implementation of these technologies requires specialists who have knowledge of mathematics, engineering and scientific approach to solving technologybased issues. 4
The use of cloud technologies for robotic systems extends the capabilities: access to neural network and Big Data training databases, open competitiveness of automation and robotics systems, access to open source software. It solves problems of the educational process technologicalization, the integration of the engineering component into the learning process, the cost of experiments of electrical appliances and the training of robots. However, there is another problem that needs to be answered in the near future, such as data privacy.